LORD 


\  el         The  Effect  of  Secession 

Upon  the 

Commercial  Relations 
Between  the 
North  and  South 


THE    EFFECT 


SECESSION 


UPON    THE 


COMMERCIAL     RELATIONS 


BETWEEN    THE 


NORTH    AND     SOUTH, 


AND    UPON 


EACH     SECTION. 


NEW  YORK: 

OFFICE     OF    THE     NEW    YORK    TIMES, 

PRINTING    HOUSE    SQUARE. 

1861. 


JOHNSON  REPRINT  CORPORATION  JOHNSON  REPRINT  COMPANY  LTD. 

Ill   Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  NY    10003  Berkeley  Square  House.  London,  W.  1 


The  articles  on  the  following  pages  are  reprints  from 
the  New  York  Times,  with  such  changes  as  were  necessary 
to  adapt  them  to  a  different  style  of  publication. 


*#*  Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year   1861,  in  the  Clerk's 
office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Southern  District  of  the  State  of  New  York. 


History  of  American  Economy :  Studies  and  Materials  for  Study 

A  series  of  reprints  of  the  important  studies 

and  source  books  relating  to  the  growth  of  the 

American  economic  system. 

General  Editor:  William  N.  Parker 


First  reprinting,  1966,  Johnson  Reprint  Corporation 
Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


r 


SECESSION: 

ITS  EFFECT  UPON  THE   COMMERCIAL  RELA- 
TIONS BETWEEN  THE   NORTH  AND 
SOUTH,  AND  UPON  EACH 
SECTION. 


The  postulate  from  which  we  start  is  Secession.  The  pos- 
sibility of  such  an  event  is  assumed  for  the  purpose  of  meas- 
uring the  effect  upon  the  commercial  relations  between  the 
North  and  South,  and  upon  each  section,  of  the  most  extreme 
measures  threatened.  The  subject  will  be  discussed  purely  in 
its  material  aspects  and  consequences  ;  those  of  a  moral  or 
political  character  being  referred  to  only  when  too  intimately 
connected  with  the  former  to  be  readily  separated  therefrom. 

MOTIVES  TO  SECESSION  ON  THE  PART  OF  THE  SOUTH. 

The  leading  motive  or  inducement  to  Secession  has  un- 
doubtedly been  the  anticipated  material  advantages  that  were 
to  result.  For  nearly  half  a  century  South  Carolina,  the 
author  of  the  movement,  has  been  dissatisfied  with  the  policy 
of  the  General  Government  as  to  the  mode  of  raising  its 
revenues.     In  1832,  this  dissatisfaction  very  nearly  broke  out 


148- 


4  MOTIVES  TO   SECESSION. 

in  open  rebellion,  but  was  awed  into  submission  by  the  deter- 
mined attitude  of  General  Jackson,  then  President  of  the 
United  States ;  but,  the  question  was  not  settled — only  post- 
poned by  the  adoption  of  the  compromise  of  Mr.  Clay.  It 
was  the  doctrine  of  Mr.  Calhoun  and  Mr.  McDuffie,  sub- 
scribed to  by  the  people  of  their  State,  and  by  a  large  party 
throughout  the  South,  that  the  operations  of  the  General 
Government  were  most  oppressive  to  a  section  which,  accord- 
ing to  their  views,  supplied,  indirectly  to  be  sure,  the  larger 
portion  of  its  revenues,  to  be  expended  almost  entirely  in  the 
Northern  States,  stimulating  their  progress  in  wealth  and 
population  to  an  extraordinary  degree,  and  paralyzing  in  an 
equal  degree  that  of  the  South.  While  every  year  that  sec- 
tion sent  abroad  products  varying  from  one  to  two  hundred 
millions  of  dollars  in  value,  only  one-tenth  the  amount  was 
returned  to  them  in  direct  importations.  The  balance  disap- 
peared, they  could  hardly  tell  how.  But  as  all  their  exports 
went  into  the  hands  of  the  "  Yankee,"  who  monopolized  the 
carrying  trade,  the  inference  to  their  minds  became  irresistible 
that  by  some  trick  of  cunning  or  smartness,  or  by  partial 
legislation,  he  contrived  to  appropriate  a  large  portion  of  them 
to  his  own  use.  By  means  of  the  wealth  wrested  in  this 
manner  from  the  South,  the  commerce,  trade,  manufactures, 
and  wealth  of  the  North  constantly  expanded,  acquiring  col- 
lossal  proportions,  while  those  of  the  South  either  remained 
stationary  or  dwindled  into  insignificance.  Each  year  only 
served  to  render  the  contrast  more  striking.  A  system,  or 
Government,  the  operations  of  which,  as  they  assumed, 
produced  such  results,  could  not  fail  to  become  in 
time,  objects  of  dislike  and  aversion.  This  feeling  was 
greatly  aggravated  by  false  and  extravagant  notions 
which  prevailed  in  the  Southern  States  as  to  the  power 
they  possessed  in  monetary  and  commercial  affairs,  by  virtue 
of  their  great  staple — Cotton.  The  consumption  of  this 
article  had  increased  with  a  rapidity  unprecedented  in  the 
annals  of  domestic  economy.  It  had  come  to  be  of  common 
use  in  every  family  in  Christendom.      In  England  millions 


MOTIVES   TO  SECESSION.  5 

were  employed  in  its  manufacture,  the  support  of  whom,  if 
not  their  very  existence,  depended  upon  a  steady  supply  of 
this  staple.  In  the  foreign  commerce  of  this  country  it  had 
come  to  be  the  leading  figure,  reaching  $191,000,000  in  value 
the  past  year — a  sum  equaling  nearly  one  half  the  total  exports 
of  the  country.  It  was  felt  to  be  unendurable,  that  a  people, 
possessing  a  monopoly  of  the  production  of  an  article  upon 
which  millions  depended  for  existence  in  the  leading  commer- 
cial country  of  the  world,  and  upon  which  the  foreign  trade 
of  our  own  was  largely  based,  should  be  the  subject  of  an 
oppression  by  our  Government,  so  excessive  as  to  destroy 
their  commercial  and  manufacturing  development,  to  check 
their  population,  and  hold  them  in  a  position  of  degrading 
vassalage.  At  the  same  time  they  believed  that  neither 
England  nor  France  would  allow  our  own  Government  to  take 
any  steps  that  would  interfere  with  the  production  or  free 
movement  of  cotton,  but  would  resist  the  same  to  the  full 
extent  of  their  power,  even  to  the  declaration  of  war  against 
it.  This  feeling  was  still  further  stimulated  by  the  importance 
to  which  the  wealth  and  power  of  the  South  were  magnified 
by  interested  parties,  and  the  numerous  crowd  who  paid  them 
court.  The  Southern  people  were  taught  to  believe  they  held 
in  their  hand  the  destinies  of  the  world ;  that  to  withhold 
their  cotton  would  bankrupt  England,  France,  and  all  the 
Northern  States.  They  were  so  often  reminded  of  their 
power,  that  in  the  absence  of  any  well  defined  notions  of  Polit- 
ical Economy,  they  were  raised  to  a  state  of  mental  ecstasy, 
which  had  about  as  little  relation  to  common  sense,  or  to  ordi- 
nary affairs,  as  the  fancies  of  Don  Quixote. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  condition  of  the  Southern  mind, 
under  the  influences  described,  we  copy  the  following  article 
from  Be  Boufs  Southern  Review,  for  January,  written  by  Major 
"VV.  H.  Chase,  of  Pensacola,  Florida,  one  of  the  most  respect- 
able and  widely-known  gentlemen  in  the  Southern  country 
which  presents  the  whole  animus  on  which  secession  is  based 
and  expresses  with  entire  fidelity  and  accuracy  the  Southern 


6  MOTIVES   TO   SECESSION. 

view  of  the  movement,  its  desirableness  and  commercial  ad- 
vantages, and  the  complete  impunity  and  protection  with 
which  it  is  to  be  accomplished  : 

"  SOUTHERN    SECESSION — ITS    STATUS    AND    ADVANTAGES. 

"  The  secession  of  these  States'  must  necessarily  be  a 
peaceful  one,  because  England,  France,  and  the  rest  of  com- 
mercial Europe,  and  the  Western  and  North- Western  States 
of  the  Union,  require  that  it  should  be. 

"  The  programme  of  secession  would  be  inaugurated  by 
proceedings  deliberate,  dignified  and  determined. 

"  This  great  revolution  would  be  duly  announced  in  ad- 
vance of  the  overt  act,  so  that  England  and  France  especially, 
and  the  Western  States,  should  be  made  acquainted  with  its 
nature,  and  with  the  great  commercial  benefits  that  would  result 
to  them  by  its  development. 

"  The  nature  of  the  revolution  would  be  due  to  a  radical 
change  in  the  political  and  commercial  relations  of  the  seceding  States 
with  the  commercial  world,  at  home  and  abroad  ;  by  which  a  free 
market  would  be  opened  to  general  commerce ;  by  which  the 
great  West  would  be  relieved  of  duties  ranging  up  to  thirty 
per  cent,  on  foreign  articles  consumed  by  its  inhabitants ;  and 
by  which  their  great  staples  would  flow  freely  through  the 
rivers  and  railways  of  Southern  ports  and  sections  ;  and  there, 
in  combination  with  the  cotton,  sugar,  rice  and  tobacco  of 
those  sections,  form  the  basis  of  exchanges  with  the  world. 

"  The  benefits  to  be  derived  to  the  commercial  nations  at 
home  and  abroad,  would  be  :  First,  the  products  of  the  great 
West,  as  well  as  of  the  South,  whose  chief  interests  lie  in  agri- 
culture, would  be  transported  to  the  home  and  foreign  markets 
at  cheaper  rates  than  many  of  them  now  are,  because  the 
lines  of  railways  to  the  Southern  ports  would  transport  freight 
every  day  in  the  year,  unimpeded  by  the  snow  of  winter ; 
and,  second,  the  foreign  ships,  being  placed  under  free  trade 
principles,  would  so  powerfully  compete  with  the  Northern 
ships  as  to  reduce  freights  from  its  Southern  ports  to  the 
lowest  living  rates.  England  and  France,  thus  stimulated, 
would  especially  increase  their  steam  commercial  marine ; 
and,  in  a  very  short  time,  relieved  of  the  great  burdens  now 
imposed  in  discriminating  duties  by  the  Government  of  the 
Union,  they  would  become  the  chief  carriers  of  American  products 
and  supplies.  Their  ships  would  come  loaded  with  the  pro- 
ducts  of    every  nation,   and,   delivering   them   at   Norfolk, 


MOTIVES   TO   SECESSION.  1 

Charleston,  Savannah,  Fernandina,  Pensacola,  Mobile  and 
New  Orleans,  would  be  reloaded  with  the  rich  products  of 
the  South  and  West.  In  less  than  six  months  from  this  time, 
every  one  of  the  above  ports  will  have  been  connected  directly 
by  railways  with  the  valleys  of  the  Mississippi  and  Missouri, 
and  with  the  vast  regions  lying  to  the  north,  the  south,  the 
east  and  the  west.  Nor  are  these  facilities  of  intercommuni- 
cation of  the  South  with  the  West  necessary  to  be  mentioned 
in  order  to  demonstrate  the  great  political  and  commercial 
advantages  which  would  be  due  to  the  secession  of  the  Cotton 
States,  and  which  would  be  enjoyed  by  them  and  all  countries 
trading  with  them. 

"  Demonstrations  already  made,  so  patent  to  the  mind  of 
the  statesman,  viewing  them  either  in  their  political  and  com- 
mercial, or  in  their  national  and  international  aspects,  will  be 
keenly  perceived  and  vigilantly  observed,  as  their  resultants 
are  disclosed.  And  so  important — almost  vitally  so — will 
they  be  to  the  interests  of  the  observers,  that  the  men  of  the 
West  and  the  East  will  pause  in  their  threatened  hostility  to  the 
revolution,  while  England  and  France  would  send  powerful  fleets  to 
insure  its  peaceful  maintenance.  The  men  of  the  West  would 
not  only  instantly  pause  in  any  hostile  course  to  it,  but  they 
tcould  demand  that  their  great  section  should  be  united  politically,  as 
it  would  be  commercially,  to  the  new  Confederacy.  In  this 
movement  they  would  be  joined  by  such  of  the  Slave  States 
as  had  kept  aloof  from  the  first  movement  of  secession.  And 
thus  that  great  movement  would  lead  directly,  and  in  a 
brief  time,  to  a  more  perfect  union  among  twenty-four  States — 
leaving  the  shipping  State  of  Maine,  and  the  commercial  and 
manufacturing  States  of  Massachusetts,  Vermont,  New 
Hampshire,  Connecticut,  Khode  Island,  New  Jersey  and 
Pennsylvania  to  work  out  their  salvation  in  their  own  way. 
They  would  have  a  clear  field  to  work  in,  for  their  present 
basis  of  trade,  navigation  and  manufactures,  would  have  been 
entirely  swept  away.  Indeed,  all  the  great  and  glorious  mate- 
rial prosperity  they  now  enjoy,  and  so  much  boast  of,  would 
become  '  as  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  vision — leaving  not  a  wreck 
behind.' 

"  The  first  demonstration  of  blockade  of  the  Southern  ports 
would  be  swept  away  by  the  English  fleets  of  observation  hovering 
on  the  Southern  coasts,  to  protect  English  commerce,  and  especi- 
ally the  free  flow  of  Cotton  to  English  and  French  factories. 
The  flow  of  Cotton  must  not  cease  for  a  day  :  because  the 
enormous  sum  of  £150,000,000  is  annually  due  to  the  elabora- 
tion of  raw  Cotton  ■  and  because  5,000,000  of  people  derive 


g  MOTIVES   TO   SECESSION. 

their  daily  and  immediate  support  therefrom  in  England  alone, 
and  every  interest  throughout  the  kingdom  is  connected  there- 
with. 

"Nor  must  the  Cotton  States  be  invaded  by  land,  for  it  would  inter- 
rupt the  cultivation  of  the  great  staple.  The  great  cotton  zone  of 
the  world  must  never  cease  to  be  cultivated ;  the  plow  and 
the  hoe,  and  the  cotton  gin  must  never  cease  to  move ;  but 
war  and  invasion  would  tend  to  that  result,  or  at  least  create 
dangerous  obstruction  to  cultivation.  Invaders,  then,  would 
have  to  be  restrained  by  force.  And  whence  would  that  force  be 
derived  ?  From  what  has  already  been  briefly  considered, 
the  answer  is  easily  framed.  The  force  would  be  derived  from  the 
West,  whose  interests  lie  in  the  free  ports  and  free  markets  of 
the  South.  The  force  would  be  derived  from  England  and  France, 
whose  interests  are  deeply  concerned  in  maintaining  an  unin- 
terrupted supply  of  Cotton;  in  the  free  trade  of  the  Southern 
and  Western  countries,  and  in  the  carrying  trade  of  their 
great  products ;  and  the  force  would  be  derived  from  Ken- 
tucky, Tenuessee,  North  Carolina,  and  Virginia — the  frontier 
Slave  States  through  which  Northern  people  would  not  be 
permitted  to  pass ;  and  if  they  were,  England  would  check  that 
movement  by  blockading  New  York,  Boston,  fyc. 

"  Assuming  the  revolution  to  be  un  fait  accompli — a  thing  in 
its  fulfilment  complete  within  itself,  and  its  fulfillers  actuated 
by  no  desire  to  take  one  step  backwards  in  the  process — the 
question  will  again  be  asked,  what  will  be  the  status  of  the 
Slave  or  Cotton  States  in  their  sovereign  and  independent 
condition  ?  And  it  will  be  answered,  that  it  will  be  that  which 
is  due  to  the  inherent  power  of  dependence,  and  the  pros- 
perity due  to  the  possession  of  the  cotton  %one  of  the  world ; 
and  it  may  again  be  further  answered,  that  this  power  and 
prosperity  will  be,  and,  indeed  is,  triply  fortified  and  maintained 
by  the  entire  power  of  England,  France,  and  the  commercial  world, 
whose  interests,  almost  vitally  so,  depend  upon  the  production 
of  millions  of  bales  of  cotton  in  the  Slave  States ;  while  the 
prosperity  of  these  leading  nations  would  be  greatly  enhanced 
by  the  free  markets  and  free  ships  which  the  declaration  of 
free  trade  would  open  to  them.  And  while  these  things  were 
enacted  with  a  celerity  due  to  the  advantages  to  be  reaped  by 
these  agricultural  States,  an  exodus,  unexampled  in  the  world's 
movement,  either  of  traditionary  or  historical  times,  would  pour 
forth  from  the  dark  and  fanatical  regions  of  the  North  into  the 
smiling  regions  of  the  South  and  West.  The  migration  from 
Europe,  under  the  influence  of  free  trade,  and  the  increasing 
demands  for  American  production,  would  produce  a  movement 


MOTIVES   TO  SECESSION.  9 

in  that  direction  far  surpassing  any  known  in  the  history  of 
European  exodus  into  America.  Thus,  population,  with  its  at- 
tendant wealth  and  power,  would  be  stimulated  and  increased; 
and  through  such  an  example,  the  neighboring  States,  Prov- 
inces and  Colonies  throughout  the  North  American  Continent, 
would  be  urged  to  assume  the  same  status.  The  fanatical 
demagogues  of  the  North  and  Middle  States  would  be  de- 
prived of  power  by  an  indignant  and  ruined  people  ;  but  the 
States,  with  energies  and  intellect  awakened  by  the  severe 
ordeal  to  which  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  will  have  subjected 
them,  would  either  claim  to  be  admitted  into  the  new  Confed- 
eracy of  Free  Trade  States,  or,  in  their  independent  condition, 
endeavor  to  recover  their  losses  in  some  degree  by  the  adop- 
tion of  free  trade  principles.  To  this  political  and  commercial 
condition  Canada  and  the  British  Provinces  must  come  at  last; 
and  to  this  condition  Cuba  and  Mexico  would  most  willingly 
assimilate,  either  by  annexation  to  the  Southern  and  "Western 
Confederacy,  or  by  the  practice  of  free  trade  principles  as 
sovereign  and  independent  nations. 

"  Under  the  movements,  and  through  their  attendant  wealth 
and  power,  the  completion  of  the  great  lines  of  communica- 
tion, and  the  commencement  of  new  ones,  would  connect  the 
valleys  of  the  Mississippi,  Missouri,  Red  River,  the  Rio 
Grande,  and  the  magnificent  valleys  of  Mexico  with  New  Or- 
leans, Mobile,  Pensacola,  Apalachicola,  St.  Marks,  Key  West, 
Fernandina,  Savannah,  Charleston  and  Norfolk.  Under  these 
influences,  the  values  of  property  would  be  enhanced,  and  yet 
not  to  a  degree  so  as  to  discourage  any  one  from  efforts  to 
possess  it.  While  the  aggregate  value  of  the  lands  in  the 
South  or  West  would  be  greatly  increased,  there  would  be 
millions  of  acres  held  within  our  wide  domain  at  prices  that 
any  industrious  man  could  give.  For,  great  as  the  influx  of 
laborers  and  cultivators  would  be  to  our  Southern  and  West- 
ern fields,  yet  the  '  further  Ind  '  would  unfold  its  rich  soil  to 
their  enterprise  and  industry. 

"  A  confederacy  possessing  such  elements  of  wealth,  pros- 
perity and  power,  would  possess  all  the  elements  of  peace  at 
home,  and  the  means,  under  a  wise  and  just  Government,  of 
preserving  it  with  foreign  nations  ;  because,  producing  natur- 
ally what  those  countries  wanted,  and  could  not  do  without, 
and  requiring  what  they  produced  in  manufactures  and  handi- 
craft, they  would,  as  it  has  already  been  shown,  remain  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  new  Confederacy.  Hence,  no  armies  or  navies 
would  be  required  to  preserve  either  national  or  international 
relations  ;  neither  these,  nor  a  host  of  office-holders  due  to  the 


10  HOW"  THE  SOUTH  GOT  THEIR  MISTAKEN  NOTIONS. 

collection  of  revenue  of  a  high  tariff,  would  be  necessary  to 
the  maintenance  of  the  Government  of  the  Confederacy.  In 
short,  the  annual  expenditures  for  the  same  need  not,  for  all 
efficient  purposes,  exceed  those  now  due  to  one  of  the  large  States 
of  the  Union." 

Here  is  a  true  picture  of  the  Southern  mind.  It  shows  us 
with  what  we  have  to  deal,  and  explains  the  conduct  of  the 
people  of  the  Cotton  States  so  incomprehensible  and  incredi- 
ble to  those  of  the  North. 

HOW  THE  SOUTH  GOT   THEIR  MISTAKEN   NOTIONS. 

Everything  is  easy  and  plain  to  him  who  never  accomplished 
anything,  simply  because  he  has  no  notion  of  the  cost  of  any- 
thing well  done.  He  consequently  assumes  in  his  favor  the 
best  of  whatever  other  people  do.  The  South  see  the  North 
possessed  of  ships,  commerce,  manufactures,  wealth  and  popu- 
lation, but  they  do  not  see  the  method  by  which  these  have 
been  created.  They  imagine  all  these  things  happened  at  the 
North  by  being  desired,  and  will  come  to  them  the  same  way, 
or  by  change  in  political  relations ;  that  they  can  be  improvised 
by  resolutions  passed  at  political  and  social  gatherings.  Such 
resolutions  for  thirty  years  past  have  annually  declared  that 
they  ought  and  should  become  a  great  manufacturing  and  com- 
mercial people.  But  no  one  had  the  disposition,  personally, 
to  undergo  the  sacrifice  and  training  necessary  to  such  a  re- 
sult. In  fact,  they  could  not  feel  or  understand  the  necessity 
of  such  sacrifice  or  training.  Without  the  corrections  and 
limitations  of  experience,  their  imaginations  ran  wild  as  to 
their  fancied  capabilities  and  power.  They  lent  a  willing  ear 
to  the  most  extravagant  statements  and  schemes  which  assumed 
to  teach  them  how  to  rival  the  North.  To  them  the  creation 
of  a  city  like  New  York,  on  their  own  soil,  was  mere  child's 
play.  As  it  is  as  easy  to  wish  for  a  great  as  a  little  thing, 
they  went  the  whole  figure,  and  are  firmly  convinced  that  a 
destiny  as  big  as  their  imaginations  awaits  them,  nothing 
daunted  by  the  complete  failure,  thus  far,  of  all  their  dreams - 
and  resolutions. 


THE  PRODUCTION  OP  COTTON  MUST  CONTINUE.  H 

The  remedy  for  all  such  fancies  is  experience.  The  Seced- 
ing States  must  now  make  good  their  assumptions  or  submit 
to  a  disastrous  defeat.  They  must  immediately  take  steps 
that  will  test  their  means  and  strength,  and  must  as  certainly 
fail,  unless  they  prove  ignorance  to  be  stronger  than  skill ;  in- 
experience than  training ;  that  aptitudes  go  for  nothing,  and 
that  labor  held  in  dishonor  is  more  productive  than  that  held 
in  respect — in  fact,  unless  the  whole  order  of  things  is  re- 
versed, and  success  is  to  come  from  being  desired  instead  of 
being  earned. 

THE  COTTON  STATES  MUST  CONTINUE  TO  PUSH  THE 
PRODUCTION  OF  THEIR  STAPLE  TO  THE  FULL  EXTENT 
OF  THEIR  MEANS. 

The  South  must  continue  to  produce.  Cotton,  not  only  as  a 
means  of  existence,  but  because  they  can  put  their  labor  to 
no  other  use.  According  to  their  estimate,  they  have 
$4,000,000,000  invested  in  labor,  chiefly  engaged  in  the  culture 
of  this  staple.  The  interest,  at  6  per  cent,  on  this  sum  is 
$240,000,000.  If  there  were  no  other  motive,  they  are  not 
going  to  let  this  vast  investment  lie  idle.  As  soon  would  the 
owner  of  a  cotton  mill  in  Lowell  stop  work  because  he  had 
taken  a  miff  at  parties  who  are  accustomed  to  purchase  or 
transport  his  fabrics.  On  the  contrary,  the  Southern  planter 
will,  under  all  circumstances,  push  the  culture  of  the  staple  to 
the  utmost  extent.  For  this  we  have  the  strongest  of  all 
guarantees — cupidity  and  the  instinct  of  self-preservation. 
He  must  raise  cotton  or  starve.  If  he  raises  it  in  sufficient 
quantities  to  buy  food,  he  will  in  sufficient  quantities  to  buy 
clothing,  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  life,  and  to  render  his 
investment  profitable.  The  planter  will  not  prove,  in  the  long 
run,  a  fool,  nor  a  person  much  differing  from  the  rest  of  man- 
kind, however  great  may  be  his  present  folly.  He  will  over- 
stock the  market  at  all  times  if  he  cau.  He  has  not  been  able 
to  do  so  for  some  time  past,  on  account  of  the  rapidly  increas- 
ing demand.     No  one  has  any  fear  that  he  will  not  do  his  best 


12  DIRECT  TRADE  WITH  EUROPE. 

to  raise  a  crop,  or  sell  it  when  raised ;  but  there  are  fears  that 
it  may  fail  from  drought,  or  a  blight,  or  negro  insurrections, 
or  war.  Once  raised,  it  will  go  to  the  consumer  with  as  much 
certainty  as  water  runs  down  hill.  It  is  to  avoid  some  of  the 
contingencies  to  the  crop,  that  efforts  are  everywhere  making 
to  raise  a  supply  elsewhere. 


WHAT  ARE  THE  REAL  RELATIONS  BETWEEN  THE 
NORTH  AND  SOUTH,  AND  ON  WHAT  ARE  THEY 
BASED. 

The  commercial  relations  between  the  North  and  South  are 
based  on  natural  laws,  and  are  entirely  distinct  from,  and  in- 
dependent of  political  ones.  The  South  produces  certain  ar- 
ticles necessary  to  commerce  that  cannot  be  raised  North, 
while  climate  and  other  conditions  enable  the  North  to  manu- 
facture more  cheaply  and  skilfully  than  at  the  South,  and  be- 
get a  spirit  of  maritime  adventure  which  renders  them  the 
carriers  for  the  whole  country.  In  certain  products,  from  dif- 
ference of  climate,  each  excels,  and  must  continue  to  excel  the 
other.  The  North  cannot  compete  with  the  South  in  the  cul- 
ture of  sugar  or  cotton.  But  the  fervid  sun  which  these 
require,  relaxes  the  muscles  and  indisposes  to  physical  exer- 
ertion.  The  South,  therefore,  cannot  compete  with  the  North 
in  manufactures  and  commerce,  which  require  great  physical 
and  nervous  energy,  which  is  the  product  of  temperate  zones, 
which  the  sun,  for  a  portion  of  the  year,  leaves  to  snow  and 
ice.  The  relations  between  the  two  sections  are  based  on  dif- 
ferences which  can  never  be  changed  by  human  agency. 

THE    EFFECT    OF    SECESSION   ON    THE    DIRECT  TRADE 
BETWEEN  THE  SOUTH  AND  EUROPE. 

One  of  the  great  advantages  which  the  Cotton  States  pic- 
tures themselves  as  springing  from  Secession  is  direct  trade  with 
Europe.  The  want  of  this  has  been  for  a  long  time  most 
galling  to  their  pride.     They  produce  one  half  of  our  exports 


DIRECT  TRADE  WITH  EUROPE.  ]3 

to  foreign  countries.  These  are  all  taken  away  in  Northern 
vessels,  which  bring  back  the  proceeds,  not  to  Southern  but  to 
Northern  ports.  They  see  that  Northern  cities  rapidly  expand 
in  population,  commerce,  and  wealth,  while  theirs  remain  sta- 
tionary, or  fall  into  decay.  The  diversion,  as  they  term  it,  of 
this  trade,  they  ascribe  to  the  action  of  the  National  Govern- 
ment, which  fosters  enterprise  at  the  North,  and  discourages 
it  at  the  South.  The  destruction  of  this  Government,  conse- 
quently, is  to  free  them  from  their  thraldom,  and  return  to 
them  in  gold,  silver  and  merchandize,  the  $150,000,000  sent 
abroad  in  Cotton.  They  will  thus  change  places  with  the 
North,  make  their  ports  the  emporiums  for  the  whole  country, 
and  compel  the  Northern  people  to  come  to  them  for  their  sup- 
plies of  foreign  merchandize. 

In  reasoning  in  this  manner,  the  Southern  people  entirely 
overlook  the  evidence,  drawn  from  experience,  of  their  apti- 
tudes and  capabilities.  The  pursuits  and  development  of 
both  North  and  South  are  simply  the  unfolding  of  natural 
laws  or  tendencies.  If  the  two  sections  differ  in  results,  they 
must  differ  equally  in  cause.  The  Southern  people  do  not 
become  sailors,  because  they  have  no  aptitudes  for  maritime 
pursuits.  If  they  do  not  build  ships  proves  either  a  lack  of  in- 
dustry, or  mechanical  skill,  or  suitable  materials,  or  good  har- 
bors, or  a  healthy  climate.  The  South  is  wanting  in  all  these 
particulars  but  materials.  These,  consequently,  have  to  be 
sent  North,  where  the  people  possess  everything  hit  material. 
No  people  with  the  climate,  or  sea-coast  of  the  South,  ever 
did,  or  ever  can  become  maritime.  Another  obstacle  is  their 
social  system.  The  forecastle  is  not  to  be  trusted  to  a  crew 
of  slaves.  The  poor  whites  have  no  taste  for  the  toil  and 
subordination  necessary  to  constitute  good  sailors.  Were 
this  fact  otherwise,  Southern  ports  are  too  liable  to  fatal  epi- 
demics to  allow  any  development  in  industry,  wealth  or  popu- 
lation, beyond  that  necessary  to  perform  the  export  trade  of 
the  districts  dependent  upon  them.  Manufactures  cannot 
flourish  in  them,  because  an  interruption  for  a  month  in  a  year 
would  prove  fatal  to  their  success.     Charleston  has  no  more 


14  DIRECT  TRADE  WITH  EUROPE. 

population  than  it  had  ten  years  ago,  for  the  reason  that  its 
export  trade  is  but  little  greater.  Another  fatal  obstacle  to 
Southern  cities  becoming  great  depots  of  trade  is  that  of  cli- 
mate, which  is  destructive  to  many  kinds  of  merchandize  if 
they  remain  long  in  store  or  warehouse.  All  Southern  cities, 
consequently,  are  only  points  in  transitu  of  merchandize  on  its 
way  from  the  manufacturer  or  merchant,  who  must  reside  in  a 
climate  which  favors  the  prosecution  of  their  industries  the 
year  round,  and  the  accumulation  of  their  products  till  they 
can  be  sent,  with  profit,  to  the  consumers. 

The  South,  consequently,  can  no  more  compete  with  the 
North  in  maritime  pursuits  on  equal  terms,  than  the  North 
with  them  in  the  production  of  Cotton.  Success  on  either 
side  must  be  in  the  direction  of  the  natural  advantages  each  pos- 
sesses. As  they  cannot  build  or  run  ships,  they  cannot  direct 
who  shall  carry  their  products.  The  party  who  will  do  it 
cheapest  will  always  be  preferred,  no  matter  what  his  politics. 
"When  the  planter  sells  his  cotton  on  the  wharf  at  Charleston, 
he  parts  with  all  power  over  its  direction  or  mode  of  transit. 
He  might  as  well  direct  who  shall  weave  and  wear  it,  or  with 
equal  reason  declare  who  were  to  be  the  fortunate  persons 
who  were  to  transport  tea  from  the  Celestial  Empire  to  outside 
barbarians.  The  absurdity  of  one  assumption  is  not  a  whit 
more  glaring  than  the  other.  We  know  that  the  South 
threaten  to  exclude  Northern  ships  from  their  ports.  All 
such  threats  are  purely  absurd.  Such  an  act  passed  to-day 
would  be  repealed  to-morrow.  The  people  are  not  yet  all 
fools,  even  in  South  Carolina;  nor  will  they,  any  more  than 
Yankeedom  refuse  a  good  bargain  because  driven  with  par- 
ties of  different  politics.  Men  may,  in  a  moment  of  passion, 
make  laws  hostile  to  their  interests,  but  when  reason  returns 
they  will  not  be  long  in  repealing  them. 

If  the  North  are  to  carry  the  cotton  to  Europe,  for  the 
same  reason  they  must  bring  back  the  proceeds.  Such  a  result 
is  inevitable.  The  bulk  of  freights  going  to  Europe  vastly 
exceeds  that  coming  to  the  United  States.  As  the  returning 
ships  average  only  half  a  cargo,  we  do  not  think  Southern 


DIRECT  TRADE  WITH  EUROPE.  J  5 

people  are  going  to  6end  ships  out  in  ballast,  for  the  sake  of 
bringing  them  back  half  loaded,  even  to  their  own  ports. 
But  if  they  should  attempt  such  an  unheard  of  absurdity, 
their  ships  would  have  to  bring  their  cargoes  to  Northern 
cities.  "Why  ?  Because  these,  representing  the  North,  own 
such  cargoes,  having  paid  for  them  in  advances  to  the  South- 
ern people  of  what  they  consume.  A  mere  fraction  of  our 
foreign  imports  finds  its  way  to  the  Southern  States.  These 
States  do  not  consume  foreign  but  domestic  merchandize.  They 
import  from  the  North  ten  dollars  in  domestics  for  every  one 
imported,  directly  or  indirectly,  from  Europe.  If  they  opened 
a  direct  trade,  they  would  not  have  returned  to  their  ports 
more  than  a  tenth,  in  value,  of  their  exports.  The  balance 
would  never  enter  their  harbors  in  any  contingency.  It  would 
go  by  the  shortest  route  to  the  parties  to  whom  it  belonged. 
The  construction  and  maintenance  of  a  foreign  commercial 
system,  under  which  the  return  freight  would  not  equal  a  tithe 
of  the  outgoing,  would  be  a  pretty  expensive  luxury.  A  ship 
or  two  a  year  would  be  ample  for  such  a  trade.  The  ex- 
pense of  importing  under  it  would  exceed  five  times  that 
through  New  York,  where  the  amount  of  consumption,  and 
the  abundance  and  perfection  of  the  means  employed,  reduces 
the  cost  to  the  lowest  point. 

Numerous  illustrations  of  this  principle  will  occur  to  every 
merchant.  Suppose  a  ship  laden  with  silks  and  the  more  ex- 
pensive textile  fabrics,  were  to  go  to  Charleston  for  a  market. 
Her  cargo  would  be  sufficient  to  supply  the  State  for  years. 
In  six  months  changes  of  style  and  fashion  would  render 
what  might  be  unsold  unmerchantable.  How  long  would 
such  a  direct  trade  continue  ?  It  would  never  commence. 
Northern  cities  monopolize  the  importation  of  high  priced 
goods,  because  their  consumers  are  numerous  enough  to  take 
whole  cargoes  while  they  are  bright  and  fresh.  Their  cus- 
tomers exceed  a  hundred-fold  the  number  that  would  ever 
find  their  way  to  any  Southern  city.  Their  merchants  would 
always  undersell  the  Southern  importer  on  his  own  ground — 
would  clean  him  out  of  the  market  in  a  month's  time. 


16  THE  EXCHANGES  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 

The  proceeds  of  the  Southern  crops  comes  North  simply 
to  pay  Southern  debts.  Take  an  illustration  of  this  on  a  grand 
scale.  Every  year  the  value  of  merchandize  going  "West 
over  the  Erie  Canal,  New  York  Central  and  Erie  Railroads, 
exceeds  that  coming  East  over  the  same  routes,  by  $100,000,000. 
This  is  a  puzzle  to  many  persons  who  do  not  reflect  upon  the 
course  of  trade  in  this  country.  They  look  upon  the  enormous 
excess  of  Western-bound  freight  as  a  proof  of  the  extrava- 
gance or  unsoundness  of  the  West.  It  is  simply  the  process 
by  which  that  section  gets  pay  for  the  products  which  it  sells 
to  the  South.  These  debts  Cotton  pays.  The  Northern  ship- 
per takes  it  to  Europe,  brings  back  the  proceeds,  which  are 
distributed  by  Northern  merchants  and  factors  to  the  credit- 
ors of  the  South,  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
land.  It  is  not  convenient  for  the  West  to  receive  its  pay 
through  Norfolk,  or  Charleston,  or  Savannah,  or  New  Or- 
leans, but  through  Northern  cities,  and  over  interior  routes  of 
communication. 


IF  THE  NORTH  ARE  THE  CARRIERS  FOR  THE  COUNTRY, 
THEY  MUST  CONTINUE  TO  PERFORM  THE  "  EX- 
CHANGES "  FOR  THE  COUNTRY. 

The  preceding  statement  of  the  routine  of  business  dis- 
poses of  the  great  bugbear  of  "  the  exchanges"  amounting  to 
fabulous  millions,  about  which  Wall  street  is  in  such  tribula- 
tion, and  which  the  South  are  going  to  snatch  away  from  us, 
and  with  them  all  our  wealth  and  greatness,  leaving  only  ruins 
to  mark  the  spot  where  New  York  once  stood.  Exchanges 
are  simply  links  in  a  great  chain  which  cannot  be  omitted 
till  the  whole  is  destroyed — results  of  business  operations  car- 
ried on  between  different  sections  of  the  country.  The  South, 
upon  the  sale  of  their  Cotton,  deliver  their  Northern  factors, 
for  collection,  the  bills  drawn  against  the  shipment.  These 
bills  are  primarily  used  in  adjusting  the  balances  between 
England   and    the   United    States.      Here   is   class   of   ex- 


NORTHERN  AND  SOUTHERN  INDUSTRIAL  SKILL.  17 

changes  number  one.  As  far  as  the  South  is  concerned, 
the  value,  or  proceeds  of  such  bills  are  distributed  among 
its  Northern  creditors,  in  which  are  embraced  the  West- 
ern farmer,  as  well  as  the  Northern  manufacturer  and 
importer.  Here  is  class  of  exchanges  number  two.  The 
North  will  cease  to  perform  these  exchanges  when  the  South 
cease  to  buy,  or  sell,  or  travel,  or  work  clantations,  or  wear 
fine  clothes — and  not  till  then. 


THE   SOUTH   CANNOT   COMPETE  WITH   THE   NORTH  IN 
ANY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIES  REQUIRING  SKILL. 

Success  in  any  pursuit  is  in  exact  ratio  to  the  industry  and 
skill  used.  The  articles  most  perfectly  finished,  or  best  adapt- 
ed to  their  objects  will  take  the  market,  South  as  well  as 
North,  even  if  manufactured  by  Garrison.  His  mark  could 
be  easily  scratched  out.  If  he  made  the  best  article,  Yancey, 
himself,  if  he  stood  in  need  of  it  would,  for  this  purpose,  lend 
the  first  hand.  We  won't  libel  him  by  allowing  that  he  would 
prefer  the  poorer  to  the  better  article.  It  is  skill,  with  its  eyes 
open,  that  wins.  At  the  North  we  do  not  blindfold  our  la- 
borers, and  then  expect  them  to  beat  all  mankind.  The 
South  have  been  constant  in  their  attempts  to  establish  manu- 
factures, but  unfortunately,  as  constantly  unsuccessful,  for  the 
reason  that  no  one,  not  even  their  own  people,  would  buy 
their  fabrics.  These  found  the  Yankee-made  a  better  article, 
and  deaf  to  all  appeals  to  their  Southern  pride  and  patriot- 
ism, would  have  it.  This  is  the  secret  of  the  failure  of  Southern 
manufactures.  Southern  people  have  no  notion  of  reversing 
the  universal  law — the  desire  of  possessing  the  best.  Wo 
treat  our  manufacturers  at  the  North  the  same  way.  If  they 
cannot  produce  as  good  an  article  as  Englishmen  or 
Frenchmen,  we  patronize  the  foreigner  without  scruple.  If 
the  Southern  manufacturer  wishes  to  drive  the  Northern 
manufacturer  out  of  his  own  neighborhood,  he  must  excel  him. 
If  he  can  do  so,  to  an  extent  equal  to  the  cost  of  transporta- 


18  NORTHERN  AND  SOUTHERN  INDUSTRIAL  SKILL. 

tion,  he  will  speedily  shut  our  establishments,  as  we  have  his. 
They  will  have  Northern  made  goods  down  South,  even  at 
the  expense  of  every  attempt  at  home  manufacture.  Hear 
what  William  Gregg,  Esq.,  one  of  the  most  intelligent  gen- 
tlemen of  South  Carolina,  and  who  has  devoted  his  life,  al- 
most, to  efforts  to  introduce  manufactures  into  his  State,  says 
in  a  late  number  of  Be  Bow's  Southern  Review,  the  great  oracle 
of  Secession  and  Southern  commercial  and  manufacturing 
independence : 

"  The  political  sentiment  of  the  South  is  decidedly  and  uni- 
versally against  the  North,  but  the  more  powerful  pecuniary 
and  commercial  sentiment  has  shown  itself  to  be  with  the  North, 
and  opposed  to  the  South,  and  if  continued  will  lead  to  our 
ruin,  both  commercially  and  politically.  It  is  so  thoroughly 
interwoven  in  the  body  politic  that  it  may  be  seen  in  the 
every-day  acts  of  our  people,  from  the  lowest  grade  of  society 
to  the  highest.  If  additional  evidence  is  necessary  to  prove 
the  positions  above  assumed,  what  better  proof  do  we  want 
than  the  fact  that  an  humble,  unpretending  country  or  village 
merchant,  who  has  not  the  means  of  going  beyond  Charleston 
to  lay  in  his  stock  of  merchandize,  should  consider  it  neces- 
sary to  obliterate  every  mark  on  a  box,  which  would  betray  the 
fact  that  his  stock  of  goods  were  purchased  in  Charleston,  and  not  in 
New  York.  It  has,  for  years  past,  been  a  common  thing  for 
country  merchants  to  request  that  their  packages  should  be  so 
marked  as  to  leave  no  clue  to  their  having  been  bought  in  Charleston. 
Does  not  every  one  know  that  a  wide- spread  public  sentiment 
has  long  existed  all  over  the  South  which  has  caused  a  pre- 
ference to  be  given  to  articles  purchased  at  the  North  ?  It 
was  quite  a  plume  in  the  cap  of  a  trader,  to  be  able  to  say  he 
was  just  from  New  York,  and  had  purchased  his  supplies 
there.  So  highly  has  that  advantage  been  esteemed,  by  all 
classes  of  men,  that  the  idea  of  enabling  a  merchant  to  go  to 
New  York  to  lay  in  his  stock,  would  enlist  the  kindly  friend- 
ship of  rich  endorsers,  and  if  anything  could  induce  a  board 
of  bank  directors  to  make  an  extraordinary  effort  to  accommo- 
date, it  would  most  surely  be  in  the  good  cause  of  enabling 
a  neighboring  merchant  to  transfer  his  custom  from  Charles- 
ton to  New  York. 

"  The  manufacture  of  shoes,  saddlery  and  harness,  hate,  and 
ready-made  clothing,  are  branches  of  industry  that  ought  not 
to  be  driven  out  of  any  country  by  the  general  consumption 


NORTHERN  AND  SOUTHERN  INDUSTRIAL  SKILL.  19 

of  foreign-made  articles  in  these  branches  of  trade.  So  fash- 
ionable has  it  become  to  purchase  everything  from  the  North, 
and  to  utterly  neglect  home  industry,  that  our  young  men 
scarcely  ever  think  of  employing  a  seamstress  to  make  their 
shirts ;  indeed,  so  little  patronage  is,  of  late  days,  extended 
to  that  branch  of  industry,  that  there  is  not  one  young  lady 
in  twenty  who  is  growing  up  with  the  expectation  of  making 
a  good  housewife,  who  knows  how  to  make  a  shirt.  These 
are  articles  that  ought  to  be  produced  at  home,  but  they  have 
been  permitted  gradually  to  become  a  fixed  article  in  the  list 
of  imports  from  the  '  Yankees.'  Indeed,  we  have  so  long  been 
habitually  supplied  by  the  '  Yankees,'  with  the  commonest 
necessity  about  a  household,  that  we  may  be  said  to  be  unpre- 
pared, as  a  people,  for  separate  nationality. 

"  Why  should  not  every  village  at  the  South  have  its  hab- 
erdasher to  supply  us  with  ready-made  clothing,  made  by  our 
own  Southern  women ;  a  hatter  to  make  our  hats,  and  shoe- 
makers to  manufacture  our  ladies,  gentlemens'  and  childrens 
shoes  ;  also,  establishments  to  make  our  wagons,  carts,  wheel- 
barrows and  plows,  our  carriages  and  buggies  ?  Why  should 
our  blacksmiths  not  make  their  own  horseshoes,  and  horse- 
shoe nails,  now  supplied  to  them  by  the  '  Yankees  ? '  North- 
ern axes  and  hoe-handles  should  be  banished  the  country,  and 
every  merchant  that  sells  garden  seeds  should  encourage  the 
country  people  around  to  raise  them,  to  be  sold  by  the  quan- 
tity to  merchants,  to  be  put  up  in  packages  and  labeled,  for 
sale  by  them.  Large  fortunes  have  been  amassed  at  the 
North  by  the  simple  article  of  garden  seeds,  which  can  be  so 
easily  raised  at  the  South.  Many  other  articles,  equally  in- 
significant, and  as  easily  dispensed  with,  compose  an  import- 
ant link  in  the  chain  of  out-goes  for  Yankee  Notions,  which, 
when  put  together,  add  a  large  sum  to  millions  drawn  from 
the  South  for  articles  that  ought  to  be  made  at  home. 

"  But,  alas !  how  is  the  present  course  of  things  to  be 
changed?  Any  attempt  to  set  up  one  of  the  branches  of 
business  named,  will  be  met  with  the  difficulty  that  looms  up 
against  all  Southern  enterprise — the  want  of  home  patronage — 
which  has  led  to  the  ruin  of  many  promising  establishments. 
Many  machine  shops,  where  engines  were  built,  have  been 
obliged,  throughout  the  South,  to  give  up  for  want  of  cus- 
tomers. The  steamboat  repairs,  obliged  to  be  done  at  the 
South,  has  assisted  in  sustaining  manufactures  of  that  branch 
of  business  in  our  Southern  seaport  cities,  has  secured  suc- 
cess where,  otherwise,  failure  would  have  been  more  com- 
mon. 


20  NORTHERN  AND  SOUTHERN  INDUSTRIAL  SKILL. 

"  The  great  shoe  manufactory  of  Charleston  failed  for  the 
want  of  Southern  patronage.  The  Charleston  cotton  factory 
felt  the  same  pressure,  and  was  compelled  to  send  Charleston- 
made  domestics  to  New  York  for  sale,  while  thousands  of 
bales  of  Yankee  domestics  were  being  distributed  throughout 
the  South  to  supply  country  merchants.  The  Saluda  factory 
started  in  1834,  with  most  brilliant  prospects.  That  company 
looked  to  Columbia  for  a  market  to  absorb  all  their  products. 
It  was  soon  found  that  in  that  early  stage  of  manufacturing, 
the  Saluda  company  were  under  the  necessity  of  sending  their 
goods  to  New  York,  while  the  South  was  almost  wholly  sup- 
plied by  Northern  manufactures.  That  company  soon  sunk 
its  capital,  and  went  into  new  hands.  The  second  company 
labored  under  the  same  causes  of  embarassment,  and  sunk 
another  capital,  and  the  concern  went  into  the  hands  of  a 
third  company,  and  is  now  managed  by  a  fourth  set  of  prop- 
rietors. The  DeKalb  factory,  near  Camden,  maintained  a 
sickly  existence  for  many  years  from  the  same  cause — want 
of  Southern  patronage. 

"  The  Augusta  mills,  on  a  large  scale,  commenced  with 
prospects  as  fair,  and  probably  more  encouraging  than  any  at 
the  South,  before  they  were  fully  under  way,  felt  seriously 
the  embarassments  of  the  want  of  a  home- market,  and  had 
to  send  their  sound  heavy  sheetings,  in  large  quantities,  to 
New  York.  That  company  finally  sold  out,  and  we  believe 
did  not  realize  more  than  twenty  cents  on  the  dollar  put  in, 
and  if  the  interest  be  calculated  as  a  part  of  the  capital,  the 
principal  was  all  lost. 

"  Many  of  the  same  parties  started  a  large  machine  shop 
in  Augusta.  That  establishment  also  went  down,  and  sunk 
its  entire  capital  from  the  same  cause — the  lack  of  Southern 
patronage.  The  failure  of  the  Augusta  Cotton  Mills  has 
done  more  to  put  back  the  progress  of  manufacturing  at  the 
South  than  any  failure  that  has  taken  place.  With  the  Au- 
gusta company,  some  twenty-five  or  thirty  manufacturing 
establishments  became  embarassed,  and  others  have  dragged 
out  a  sickly  existence  from  the  same  cause — want  of  home 
patronage." 

The  whole  question  is  one  of  intelligence  and  skill.  "With 
the  present  social  organization  South,  any  other  result  is  im- 
possible. Southern  laborers  are  ignorant  and  unskilful.  The 
Negro  is  regarded  as  an  inferior  caste,  with  no  function  but 
to  labor.     This  becomes,  consequently,  a  badge  of  degrada- 


COMMERCIAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  NORTH  AND  SOUTH.      21 

tion  to  all  who  are  enforced  to  it.  By  necessaiy  consequence 
it  is  avoided  by  all  classes  of  whites.  A  people  possessing 
such  notions  can  never  compete  with  those  who  hold  labor  as 
an  honor,  and  united  with  intelligence  and  industry,  as  the 
surest  path  to  respectability  and  wealth. 

Another  insurmountable  obstacle  to  success  in  manufactur- 
ing in  the  Southern  States,  where  negroes  are  employed,  is  the 
impossibility  of  introducing  what  maybe  termed  the  co-opera- 
tive principle,  by  which  each  laborer  is  paid  just  in  proportion 
to  the  value  of  his  service — in  other  word,  to  the  degree  of 
skill  and  industry  he  exercises.  The  highest  of  all  motives 
is  thus  constantly  appealed  to,  and  all  employed  unite  their 
best  efforts  to  a  common  end.  Every  person  attending  a  par- 
ticular step  in  the  process  is  as  eager  for  success  as  the  owner 
of  the  establishment,  as  his  own  wages  depend  upon  the 
amount  and  excellence  of  the  work  he  turns  out.  Enforced 
labor  can  never  be  appealed  to  in  this  manner.  It  shirks 
everything  it  can.  A  factory  in  Lowell,  worked  by  slaves, 
would  necessarily  break  down  beside  one  worked  by  freemen, 
to  whom  high  wages  were  paid ;  for  this  reason,  that  the  pro- 
ducts of  the  former  would  be  so  bunglingly  wrought  that  no 
one  would  buy  them,  while  the  amount  produced  would  be  so 
small  as  to  give  no  return  on  the  capital  invested.  The  result 
in  Lowell  would  be  exactly  the  same  as  it  has  been  in  South 
Carolina. 


THE  PAST  COMMERCIAL  RELATIONS  BETWEEN  THE 
NORTH  AND  SOUTH  MUST  BE  CONTINUED. 
The  difference  between  the  two  sections  is  not  accidental, 
to  be  changed  or  cured  by  wishing,  but  is  the  inevitable  result 
of  premises,  equally  diverse  in  principle.  While  one  remains 
the  other  must.  "Whatever  the  South  have  come  North  for, 
they  must  continue  to  come  for,  and  will  only  be  prevented  by 
the  existence  of  actual  hostilities.  As  soon  as  these  subside, 
the  ordinary  intercourse,  founded  on  natural  laws,  must  be 
resumed  and  continue. 


22    COMMERCIAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  NORTH  AND  SOUTH. 

From  what,  then,  are  the  Southern  people  going  to  with- 
draw ?  Not  from  our  trade  and  industries,  unless  they  cease 
to  consume  ;  not  from  personal  intercourse  which  necessarily 
follows  trade;  nor  unless  they  determine  to  forego  the  luxuries 
of  our  peculiar  civilization,  which  seems  to  have  such  charms 
for  them.  Never  was  more  Southern  money  spent  North,  in 
traveling,  and  in  places  of  recreation  and  amusement,  than 
during  the  past  year.  These  are  not  likely  to  lose  their  attrac- 
tions. The  opera  is  not  going  to  leave  New  York  for  At- 
lanta or  Montgomery ;  nor  is  Newport,  nor  Niagara,  nor 
Saratoga,  nor  the  White  Mountains  to  be  improvised  in  South 
Carolina  or  Mississippi.  The  South  come  North  for  these,  by 
a  law  no  stronger  than  for  the  luxuries  and  necessities  of  life. 
"We  hear  a  great  deal  said  of  what  they  are  going  to  do ;  but 
results  bragged  of  in  advance  never  did  come  to  pass,  and 
never  will,  for  the  reason  that  true  greatness  and  success  is 
but  the  unfolding  of  the  principle,  or  kind  of  life,  that  man, 
or  society,  or  a  people  have  within  them.  Let  our  merchants 
and  manufacturers,  who  have  so  troubled  themselves  with 
apprehensions,  trust  to  the  laws  that  underlie  human  nature 
and  human  conduct,  rather  than  noisy  declamation  and 
groundless  assertions,  and  they  will  come  out  all  right.  If 
the  South  are  not  in  humor  to  buy,  and  pay  too,  our  goods 
can  be  kept  on  their  shelves.  A  case  of  silks,  or  a  bale  of 
cottons,  or  a  steam-engine,  or  a  hogshead  of  bacon,  had  better 
be  on  hand  than  in  bad  debts. 

The  extent  to  which  the  relations  between  the  two  sections 
may  be  disturbed,  and  the  degree  of  the  consequent  injury, 
must  depend  upon  the  Southern  States.  The  Northern 
States  have  no  other  desire  but  to  remain  on  terms  of  har- 
mony. We  have  not  yet  made  such  fools  of  ourselves  as  to 
threaten,  on  account  of  political  differences,  to  close  our  ports 
to  any  one  ready  to  offer  us  a  bargain,  or  purchase  anything 
we  produce.  In  case  of  a  breach  we  must  suffer,  but  we 
should  neither  starve  nor  go  naked,  as  we  fortunately  produce 
among  ourselves  nine-tenths  of  the  articles  we  consume.  We 
should  also  get  what  we  do  not  produce,  cotton,  and  that,  too, 


WEALTH  AND  PRODUCTION  NORTH  AND  SOUTH.  23 

in  sufficient  abundance.  This  great  staple  absorbs  in  its  pro- 
duction almost  the  entire  labor  and  capital  of  the  South.  Un- 
fortunately for  them,  they  can  neither  eat  nor  drink  it — nor  can 
they  wear  it,  unless  they  first  send  it  North  to  be  manufac- 
tured. The  question  of  our  procuring  a  supply  depends 
simply  upon  that  of  the  existence  of  Southern  society  and 
Southern  institutions.  These  cannot  exist  without  its  produc- 
tion and  sale ;  and  we  will  not  do  Southerners  the  injustice 
to  suppose,  that  in  making  their  purchases,  they  will  not 
eagerly  seek  the  parties  who  will  supply  the  best  article  at 
the  cheapest  rate,  and  these  must  always  be  found  in  the 
Northern  States. 


RELATIVE  DEGREE  OF  WEALTH  AND   MEANS   OF  PRO- 
DUCTION NORTH  AND  SOUTH. 

In  the  preceding  pages  we  have  shown  that  the  commer- 
cial relations  between  the  North  and  South  are  founded  on 
natural  laws,  and  can  only  be  interrupted  by  political  disturb- 
ances. Nine-tenths  of  the  imported  articles  that  the  South 
consume  are  purchased  at  the  North.  The  greater  propor- 
tion of  these  can  be  obtained  from  no  other  quarter  except  at 
a  greatly  increased  cost.  Secession,  in  itself,  would  exert  no 
considerable  influence  to  change  the  course  of  trade  between 
the  two  sections,  or  diminish  its  amount.  Of  course  prohibi- 
tory, or  retaliatory  laws  might,  for  a  time,  produce  great  dis- 
turbance, but  in  the  end,  the  interests  of  both  sections  would 
regulate  their  intercourse,  as  it  does  that  between  the  United 
States  and  Canada.  The  Southern  trade,  therefore,  cannot 
be  lost,  though  great  loss  and  suffering  may  be  caused  by  its 
temporary  withdrawal.  But  in  such  an  event  the  great  bulk 
of  our  present  trade  would  remain  to  us,  while  the  increase 
of  its  volume  in  the  Northern  States,  in  one  decade,  growing 
out  of  our  increased  population,  would,  as  we  shall  show, 
be  fully  equal  to  the  entire  trade  we  now  enjoy  with  the 
South.     The  population  of  the   Free  States  advanced  within 


24  WEALTH  AND  PRODUCTION  NORTH  AND  SOUTH- 

the  last  ten  years  from  13,434,781  to  18,951,814,  or  at  the 
rate  of  about  41  per  cent.  At  a  similar  rate  from  1860  to 
1870,  the  annual  gain  will  be  about  780,000.  Their  means 
of  production  and  consumption  increase  much  more  rapidly 
than  numbers,  from  the  new  and  improved  agencies  constantly 
brought  into  their  service. 

All  wealth  is  the  product  of  labor  and  capital ;  but  the 
degree  of  its  accumulation  depends  upon  the  skill  with  which 
it  is  directed,  the  density  of  population,  the  variety  of 
industries  practised,  and  the  amount  of  capital  invested. 
Skill,  or  inventive  genius,  is  the  prime  agent,  as  it  creates 
population  by  supplying  the  means  of  existence — food,  cloth- 
ing and  shelter  and  a  variety  of  pursuits,  by  teaching  new 
processes  or  methods.  It  realizes  the  fable  of  Cadmus.  It 
is  the  nucleus  around  which,  as  their  vital  principle,  great  ag- 
gregations of  men  gather.  An  improvement  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  iron  rendered  possible  the  construction  of  railroads, 
iron  ships,  and,  in  fact,  all  the  great  works  of  the  day.  Its 
inventor  proved  to  be  more  prolific,  and  has  added  a  larger 
number  to  the  population  of  England  and  the  United  States 
than  .all  the  families  of  the  country  in  which  he  was  born. 
Millions  in  England,  to-day,  owe  their  very  existence  to  the 
power-loom,  the  spinning-jenny,  and  the  process  of  puddling 
iron.  Goodyear,  by  teaching  how  to  combine  India-rubber 
with  sulphur,  has  made  himself  the  progenitor  of  thousands, 
and,  in  time,  of  hundreds  of  thousands,  even  if  he  had  not 
left  a  lineal  descendant.  In  the  commerce  of  the  country  he 
is,  today,  a  larger  figure  than  the  State  of  Florida,  as  his 
improvements  send  a  larger  amount  of  values  into  consump- 
tion. One  of  the  finest  towns  of  Massachusetts  is  an  out- 
growth of  an  improvement  by  Bigelow,  in  the  manufacture 
of  carpets.  By  a  process  that  enables  one  man,  assisted  by 
machinery,  to  perform  the  labor  of  a  hundred,  he  gives  em- 
ployment to  ten  times  the  number  of  those  whose  labor  he 
superseded,  increases  the  population  of  his  State  by  thous- 
ands, and  the  value  of  the  property  in  it  by  millions.  The 
wealth  of  the  age  is  in  the  inventive  brain,  which  finds  at  the 


WEALTH  AND  PRODUCTION  NORTH  AND  SOUTH.  25 

South  neither  encouragement  nor  support.  It  is  computed 
that  the  machinery  at  work  in  England,  and  driven  by  steam, 
performs  the  labor  of  600,000,000  men.  Hence  the  vast 
wealth  of  that  country.  The  machinery  running  in  Massa- 
chusetts has  a  power  equal  to  100,000,000  of  men.  Unedu- 
cated muscular  energy  is  now  a  very  poor  commodity  com- 
pared with  the  skill  that  makes  servants  of  natural  laws. 
This  is  the  triumph  of  the  age  in  which  we  Jive.  From  the 
creation  almost  to  the  present  generation,  man  had  been  the 
sport  of  natural  laws,  or  phenomena,  regarding  them  with 
superstitious  awe  and  terror.  The  forces  that  heaved  the 
mountains  were  to  him  struggles  of  imprisoned  offenders  ; 
while  the  agent  that  proclaims  his  thought  as  fast  as  his  ima- 
gination can  fly,  was  the  voice  of  an  enraged  deity.  But  man 
at  last  doubled  upon  his  pursuers.  A  greater  than  Rarey 
appeared,  and  fiercer  subjects  than  Cruiser  were  tamed  to 
more  submissive  attitudes.  For  a  people  to  cut  themselves 
off  from  the  highest  uses  of  such  agencies  is  to  accept  a  hope- 
less inferiority.  The  South  accepts  such,  because  they  will 
not  put  themselves  to  the  requisite  training  and  education 
needed  to  direct  their  use.  If  we  take  the  two  extremes  of 
this  country,  where  the  peculiar  institution  and  mechanical  skill 
have  their  highest  emphasis — South  Carolina  and  Massachu- 
setts— we  shall  find  that  labor  in  the  latter,  assisted  by  skill, 
is  four  times -as  productive  as  that  in  the  former,  where  it  is 
performed  by  ignorant  slaves.  This  is  easily  demonstrated 
by  a  comparison  of  the  products  and  exports  of  the  two 
States. 

The  value  of  articles  produced  in  the  Southern  States,  and 
going  into  commerce,  can  be  easily  ascertained  ;  those  of  the 
extreme  South  consisting  of  Cotton,  Sugar,  Rice,  Lumber  and 
Naval  Stores,  of  the  shipments  of  which  from  the  Southern 
ports,  statements,  carefully  prepared,  are  annually  published. 
The  exports  from  the  port  of  Charleston  for  the  year  1859-60, 
both  foreign  and  coastwise,  according  to  the  annual  statement 
in  the  Charleston  Mercury,  and  published  in  Be  Bow's  Southern 
Review  for  October,  I860,  were  as  follows  : 


26  WEALTH  AND  PRODUCTION  NORTH  AND  SOUTH. 

Exports.  Bales.  Value.  Value. 

Cotton. 

Foreign 386,770 

Coastwise 159,339 

Total 546,109        $24,574,905 

Deduct  received  from  Georgia 75,000 

Total 471,109  3,575,000—821,199,905 

Rice.  Tierces. 

Foreign 43,354 

Coastwise 94,219 

Total : 137,573  3,439,325 

Rice — Rough.  Bushels. 

Foreign 91,273 

Coastwise 4 1,6  7 1 

Total 132,008                                    250,000 

Lumber.  Feet. 

Foreign 5,447.478 

Coastwise 6,833,354 

Total 12,280,832  309,861 

Bbls. 

Naval  Stores 157,787  336,680 

Add  10  per  cent,  for  other  ports  in  the 
State 2,553,519 

Total  for  the  State $28,088,587 

The  South  Carolina  Railroad  brings  annually  to  Charles- 
ton about  200,000  bales  of  Cotton,  received  from  the  Georgia 
Railroads.  But  a  portion  grown  in  South  Carolina,  adjoin- 
ing the  Savannah  River,  goes  to  Savannah  for  shipment. 
The  estimate  we  have  made  for  the  State  is  probably  greater 
than  the  product.  The  total  estimate  for  all  articles  is  a  lib- 
eral one — but  to  be  beyond  the  possibility  of  error,  we  will 
estimate  the  total  exports  of  the  State  for  1859-60,  at 
$30,000,000.  This  aggregate  is  at  the  rate  of  $41  per  head, 
of  the  whole  population,  estimating  it  at  725,000;  or  at  the 
rate  of  $70  for  each  negro  in  the  State,  estimating  the  whole 
number  to  be  420,000. 

Now,  byway  of  comparison,  let  us  see  what  is  the  amount 
and  value  of  the  products  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts. 
The  last  census  we  have  is  that  of  1855,  a  very  full  and  com- 
plete one,  taken  by  the  State  authorities.  The  total  value  of  the 
articles  produced  that  year  was  $295,820,681.     Of  the  total 


WEALTH  AND  PRODUCTION  NORTH  AND  SOUTH.  27 

aggregate,  values  to  the  amount  $66,439,825  were  products 
of  agriculture  and  manufacture,  the  greater  portion  of  which 
were  consumed  at  home,  leaving  a  balance  of  $229,380,856  of 
fabrics  consumed  in  other  States  as  generally  ae  by  the  people 
in  this.  "We  give  a  list  of  some  of  these  articles,  with  their 
values,  as  interesting  and  indubitable  illustrations  of  the  sub- 
ject under  discussion  : 

Articles.  Value. 

Cotton  goods $36,404,738 

Woolen  goods 15,124,233 

Iron  and  manufactures  of  iron 10,326,874 

Steam  engines  and  machinery 7,344,890 

Paper 4,643,680 

Refined  Sugars 2,056,630 

Sperm  oil  and  candles. .  ;   6,813,290 

Soap  and  Candles 7,720,533 

Boots  and  Shoes 37,489,923 

Hats,  caps  and  bonnets 7,532,718 

Sperm  and  whale  oil  and  bone 7,766,996 

Mackerel  and  cod 2,829,640 

Distilled  liquors 3,154,828 

Clothing 9,061,896 

Glass 2,648,125 

Musical  instruments 2,291,680 

Jewelry  and  watches 2,105,000 

Cordage 2,478,410 

Mechanics'  tools 1,142,604 

Manufactures  of  copper  and  brass 3,187,556 

Cutlery 1,200,279 

Total $173,384,523 

The  population  of  Massachusetts  in  1855  was  1,137,000, 
or  one  twenty-fifth  that  of  the  United  States.  Now,  instead 
of  consuming  only  their  share  of  those  manufactures,  which 
are  consumed  abroad  and  in  other  States  as  generally  as  at 
home,  we  will  estimate  that  they  consumed  15  per  cent.,  or 
values  to  the  amount  of  $34,407,128.  Deducting  this  sum, 
there  would  be  left  $194,973,726  of  manufactured  articles, 
the  products  of  the  State  entering  into  the  commerce  of  the 
country  in  an  equal  degree  as  those  of  South  Carolina.  This 
aggregate  would  give  an  average  production  of  $172  per 
head  of  articles  contributed  to  the  commerce  of  the  country 


28  WEALTH  AND  PRODUCTION  NORTH  AND  SOUTH. 

— a  sum  more  than  four  times  greater  than  the  average 
amount  contributed  per  head  by  the  population  of  South 
Carolina  In  the  case  of  Massachusetts,  articles  exceeding 
8100,000,000  in  value,  the  products  of  the  State  consumed  on 
the  spot,  were  deducted  in  the  outset,  which  is  at  the  rate  of 
$100  per  head. 

In  South  Carolina  the  articles  produced  and  consumed  at 
home  in  the  same  way  will  not  probably  equal  more  than  $25 
per  head,  or  say  $20,000,000  in  all.  But  we  do  not  propose 
to  go  into  this  branch  of  the  subject,  but  confine  ourselves  to 
the  relative  value  of  the  products  of  the  two  States  exported 
for  general  consumption. 

Massachusetts,  then,  produces  and  sends  into  the  channels 
of  commerce  of  the  country  more  than  four  times  as  much, 
per  head,  of  her  population  as  South  Carolina.  A  mere 
description  of  the  agencies  employed  in  the  two  States  will 
compel  to  such  a  conclusion,  without  the  support  of  a  voucher 
or  a  figure.  Within  the  compass  of  100  acres  in  the  City  of 
Lowell  are  agencies  at  work  which,  assisted  by  15,000  labor- 
ers, more  than  one-half  females,  produce  for  general  consump- 
tion fabrics  exceeding  in  value  more  than  one-half  the  whole 
exports  of  South  Carolina.  Two  Lowells,  consequently,  are 
of  greater  moment  than  this  State  in  commercial  affairs. 
Philadelphia  is  a  dozen  South  Carolinas  rolled  into  one. 

But  this  is  not  all.  In  the  census  of  the  products  of  the 
industry  of  Massachusetts,  the  profits  of  her  investments  in 
commerce,  navigation,  in  banks,  insurance  companies  and 
railroads,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  are  not  included.  The 
value  of  such  investments  exceeds  $200,000,000,  a  sum  equal- 
ing the  entire  slave  property  of  South  Carolina,  estimating  it 
at  $500  a  head,  and  yielding  an  annual  net  profit  very  nearly 
equaling  that  of  the  entire  slave  labor  of  the  State,  taking 
out  the  cost  of  its  maintenance. 

The  difference  in  amount  of  production  between  labor  North 
and  South,  is  no  where  better  seen  than  in  comparing  that  of 
the  Southern  field  hands  with  that  of  operatives  employed  in 
the  manufacture  of  cotton  at  the  North.     The  value  of  cotton 


WEALTH  AND  PRODUCTION  NORTH  AND  SOUTH.  09 

fabrics  manufactured  in  Massachusetts,  in  1855,  equaled 
$37,104,000.  The  *alue  of  the  raw  material  used  (105,851,749 
pounds,)  being  $10,585,174.  The  net  profit  added  by  capi- 
tal and  labor  was  $26,518,820.  The  number  of  operatives 
employed  was  30,588,  of  which  23,000  were  females.  The 
average  value  of  product  per  head  was  $725,  or  ten  times 
greater  than  the  average  value  of  the  products  of  labor  in 
South  Carolina.  It  may  be  said,  to  be  sure,  that  part  of  the 
profit  due  to  the  manufacture  of  cotton  belongs  to  capital. 
This  is  true.  But  were  the  cotton  mills  of  Massachusetts 
transferred  to  South  Carolina,  they  would  remain  idle  for  want 
of  competent  hands  to  run  them.  Capital  locates  itself  in 
Massachusetts  because  it  can  be  joined  with  industry  and 
skill,  which,  combined,  yield  a  reward  exceeding  ten-fold  that 
of  uneducated  and  unskilled  labor.  By  virtue  of  her  skill 
and  industry,  assisted  by  her  capital,  which  is  their  product, 
the  State  of  Massachusetts  sends  annually  into  the  commerce  of  the 
country,  values  greater  than  that  of  the  entire  cotton  crop  of  the 
South  ! 

As  a  people  produce  so  they  consume.  If  Massachusetts 
manufactures  and  exports  fabrics  to  the  value  of  $194,973,726, 
she  imports  and  consumes  an  equal  amount.  Her  imports 
being  seven  times  greater  than  South  Carolina,  her  trade  to 
the  country  is  seven  times  as  valuable.  AVe  have  no  doubt 
it  is  worth  ten  times  as  much.  Other  Northern  communities 
equally  rich,  consume  in  the  same  proportion. 

It  is  not  our  object  to  go  into  a  lengthened  argument  upon 
any  of  the  matters  discussed,  but  to  give  illustrations  that 
will  apply  to  a  whole  class.  In  commerce  and  manufactures 
the  South  does  not  pretend  to  compete  with  the  North.  The 
Cotton  States  do  not  bring  capital,  inventive  genius  and  in- 
telligence to  aid  their  industry.  The  wealth  of  the  present 
day  results  from  a  combination  of  these.  These  States  count 
half,  or  2,500,000,  of  their  population  as  capital,  From  1850 
to  1860,  the  North  imported  from  Europe  nearly  3,000,000 
people.  These,  though  freemen,  are  capital  just  as  much  as 
the   Southern  Slaves,  as  their  yearly  industries  add  a  larger 


30 


WEALTH  AND  PRODUCTION  NORTH  AND  SOUTH. 


sum  to  the  wealth  of  the  country,  though  possessed  by  them- 
selves. To  compare  the  North  with  the  South,  we  should 
increase  our  numbers  by  the  amount  of  our  permanently  in- 
vested productive  capital.  This  would  give  us  relatively  twice 
or  thrice  our  present  numbers.  The  present  population  of 
the  North  is  nearly  double  that  of  the  South.  Its  productive 
capacity,  as  we  have  shown,  is  four  times  as  great  per  head. 
"When  it  is  considered  that  for  the  support  of  the  negro  $20 
or  $25,  on  the  average,  is  an  ample  allowance,  including  food 
and  clothing,  while  at  the  North  it  must  be  five  times  as  much 
per  head,  the  conclusions  stated  cannot  fail  to  be  adopted  by 
every  person  at  all  familiar  with  the  subject. 

The  returns  of  the  census  of  1850  give  very  nearly  the 
same  results.  Mr.  Guthrie,  in  his  Report  on  the  finances  for 
1854-5,  prepared  a  statement  from  this  census  of  the  total 
products  in  each  State,  with  the  average  value  for  each  per- 
son, and  from  which  the  following  table  is  compiled  : 


PRODUCTS 
STATES.  PER  HEAD. 

Massachusetts $166  60 

Rhode  Island 164  61 

Connecticut. 156  05 

California 149  6U 

New  Jersey 120  62 

New  Hampshire 117   17 

New  York Ill  94 

Pennsylvania 99  30 

Vermont 96  02 

Illinois 89  04 

Missouri 83  06 

Delaware 85  27 

Maryland 83  85 

Ohio 75  82 

Michigan 72  54 

Kentucky 71  82 

Maine 71   11 

Indiana 69   12 


PRODUCTS 
STATES.  PER  HEAD. 

Wisconsin $68  41 

Mississippi 67  50 

Iowa 65  47 

Louisiana 65  00 

Tennessee 63  10 

Georgia 61  45 

Virginia 59  42 

South  Carolina 56  91 

Utah - 56  62 

Alabama 55  72 

Florida 54  77 

Arkansas 52  04 

District  of  Columbia 52  00 

Texas 51   13 

North  Carolina 49  38 

Minnesota 24   13 

New  Mexico 16  50 


Such  has  been  the  progress  in  mechanical  invention  and 
in  the  manufacturing  industries  of  the  North,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  value  of  products,  per  head,  in  these,  is  four 
or  five  times  greater  than  in  the  planting  States.  This  excess 
is  steadily  increasing,  and  just  to  the  degree  that  natural  laws 


WEALTH  AND  PRODUCTION  NORTH  AND  SOUTH. 


31 


and  agencies  united  with  capital,  are  made  to  supercede  mus- 
cular energy,  especially  that  of  ignorant  and  unskillful  men. 

The  magnitude  of  the  internal  trade  of  Massachusetts  is  a 
striking  illustration  of  the  vastness  of  the  products  of  her  in- 
dustry. The  number  of  tons  of  merchandize  carried  on  all 
the  Railroads  of  the  State,  in  1859,  was  as  follows: 


TONS 
ROADS.  CARRIED. 

Agricultural  Branch 7,784 

Boston  and  Lowell 3S9,455 

Boston  and  Maine 276,390 

Boston  and  Worcester 327,350 

Boston  and  Providence 259,938 

Cape  Cod  Branch 42,285 

Cheshire 125,477 

Connecticut  River 102,442 

Eastern 114,593 

Easton  Branch 9,940 

Essex 33,822 

Fairhaven  Branch 10,165 

Fitchburg 413,923 

Fitchburg  and  Worcester  ••  •  30,718 
Lexington  and  West  Cam- 
bridge   20,766 

Middleboro'  and  Taunton-  ••  13,172 

Nashua  and  Lowell 174.973 


TONS 
ROADS.  CARRIED. 

New  Bedford  and  Taunton  ••  47,147 

Newburyport 19,370 

New  London,  W.  and  Palmer  34,000 

Norfolk  County 29,171 

Norwich  and  Worcester ••  ••  117,445 

Old  Colony 199,298 

Pittsfield  and  North  Adams-  28,287 

Prov.,  Warren  and  Bristol  •  •  8,225 

Providence  and  Worcester  ••  142,130 

South  Shore 18,756 

Stony  Brook 17,906 

Stoughton  Branch 25,602 

Taunton  Branch 50,126 

Vermont  and  Mass 76,297 

Western 448,345 

Worcester  and  Nashua 101,426 

Total 3,716,726 


A  part  of  the  tonnage  is  duplicated,  not  more  than  700,000 
tons,  however,  leaving  at  least  3,000,000  as  the  actual  tonnage 
for  all  the  Eoads.  This  amount  for  a  single  State  North,  is 
greater  than  the  total  tonnage  of  the  Railroads  of  all  the  South- 
ern States.  At  the  low  estimate  of  one  hundred  dollars  per 
ton,  the  aggregate  value  would  be  $300,000,000,  a  sum  con- 
siderably greater  than  the  exports  of  all  the  Southern  States, 
both  Foreign  and  Coastwise.  Such  a  comparison  gives  us  a 
good  idea  of  the  superior  productiveness  of  Northern  indus- 
try over  Southern.  But  this  comparison  by  no  means  does 
justice  to  the  North.  A  very  large  amount  of  the  products 
of  Massachusetts  does  not  go  upon  the  Railroads  at  all,  but 
is  shipped  direct  from  the  place  of  production — a  large 
number  of  the  manufacturing  towns,  such  as  Boston  and 
vicinity,  Fall  River,  Taunton,  New  Bedford,  Newburyport, 
Salem  and  Lynn,  lying  upon  tide-water. 


32  THE  MOUTHS  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 

THE  MOUTHS  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI— WHERE  ARE  THEY? 

A  few  years  ago  the  only  method  of  getting  the  produce 
of  the  greater  portion  of  the  Western  States  to  market  was 
to  float  it  by  its  own  gravity  down  the  Mississippi.  To  give 
us  the  free  use  of  this  river  and  its  outlet,  and  to  avoid  a  con- 
stant source  of  bickering  and  quarrel  with  a  foreign  power, 
the  territory  of  Louisiana  was  purchased.  But  this  did  not 
accomplish  all  that  was  needed.  The  consumers  of  this  pro- 
duce lay  to  the  north-east,  rendering  necessary  a  circuit  of 
some  four  thousand  miles  to  reach  districts  separated  only  by 
as  many  hundred.  The  people  of  New  York,  consequently, 
set  to  work  to  open  another  outlet  for  the  great  valley — in 
effect  to  turn  its  great  river  into  their  own  magnificent  harbor. 
With  this  view  the  Erie  Canal  was  constructed  ;  a  work  of 
small  capacity  in  the  outset,  but  still  sufficient  to  accomplish 
vast  results,  instantly  reducing  the  cost  of  transporting  a  ton 
of  merchandize  from  Buffalo  to  New  York  from  $100  to  $15. 

Such  a  result,  and  the  great  commercial  advantages  that 
followed,  led  the  Eastern  States  of  Pennsylvania,  Maryland 
and  Virginia,  and  all  the  States  bordering  the  Lakes,  to  un- 
dertake similar  works.  The  State  of  Pennsylvania  constructed 
a  canal  from  the  Susquehanna  to  the  Ohio  River,  and  ex- 
tensions from  this  river  to  Lake  Erie,  and  to  the  line  of 
Ohio.  This  State  constructed  two  canals  extending  from  its 
southern  to  its  northern  boundary.  Indiana  undertook  a 
similar  work,  extending  from  the  north-east  to  the  south-west 
corner  of  the  State.  Illinois  commenced  a  canal  to  unite 
Lake  Michigan  with  her  great  river,  which  was  completed  in 
1848.  These  works  which,  at  the  time  they  were  commenced, 
were  regarded  as  superior  to  all  other  modes  of  transporta- 
tion of  property,  as  well  as  persons,  led  to  a  great  change  in 
the  direction  of  Western  produce.  Instead  of  being  sent, 
every  pound  of  it,  down  the  Mississippi  as  formerly,  increas- 
ing quantities  were  yearly  turned  into  the  new  routes. 

But  Canals  could  be  constructed  only  in  a  few  localities.  A 
new  and  more  efficient  agency,  the  greatest  achievement  of 


THE  MOUTHS  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  33 

modern  times,  the  Railroad,  came  into  play.  Practicable 
everywhere,  they  were  commenced  in  every  part  of  the  coun- 
try, and  in  the  decade  just  closed,  more  than  10,000  miles, 
have  been  constructed  in  the  North-Western  States  alone 
Nearly  every  mile  was  designed  to  be,  and  is,  tributary  to  the 
works  of  the  North-Eastern  States,  including  Pennsylvania 
and  Maryland,  and  is  but  carrying  out  the  objects  which  gave 
birth  to  the  Erie  Canal.  From  Lake  Michigan  eleven  great 
lines  of  railroad  radiate,  striking  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio  at  as 
many  points,  the  extremes  being  Lacrosse  and  Cincinnati. 
Four  great  lines  run  directly  East  from  the  Mississippi, 
forming  connections  with  others  leading  to  the  seaboard. 
Nine  great  railroads  have  been  constructed  between  the  Ohio 
and  Lake  Erie.  The  routes  described  are  trunks  for  a  net  of 
less  important  lines,  covering  the  whole  West,  and  supply 
the  means  for  sending  North  and  East  the  whole  of  its  pro- 
ducts. In  the  meantime  the  capacity  of  the  Erie  Canal  has 
been  increased  five-fold.  Five  great  lines  of  railroad  have  also 
been  constructed,  extending  from  the  Atlantic  to  Lake  Erie 
and  the  Ohio  River,  and  affording  abundant  means  for  trans- 
porting, at  a  cheap  rate,  the  entire  production  of  the  interior. 
The  cost  of  the  works,  constructed  to  change  the  direction 
of  the  commerce  of  the  Mississippi,  cannot  be  less  than 
$500,000,000,  oic  about  one-half  the  cost  of  all  the  railroads 
and  canals  of  the  United  States  ! 

The  results  accomplished  have  been  as  vast  as  the  means 
employed.  Forty-nine  fiftieths  of  all  the  produce  of  the  Free 
States  of  the  West  are  turned  over  the  new  channels  leading 
directly  to  the  districts  of  consumption.  The  importance  of 
the  Mississippi  river  and  its  outlets,  as  channels  of  commerce, 
consequently,  has  been  reduced  in  an  equal  degree.  If  the 
freedom  of  its  navigation  should  be  threatened,  we  have  the 
satisfaction  of  knowing  that  we  have  already  secured  to  our- 
selves, through  new  channels  under  our  own  control,  the  trade 
of  the  greater  and  better  portions  of  the  valley  watered  by 
this  river.  This  trade,  already  of  vast  magnitude  and  value, 
is  yearly  swelling  in  volume.     Every  day  are  we  enlarging  the 


34  THE  MOUTHS  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 

area  tributary  to  the  East.  Nearly  all  the  breadstuff's,  and 
the  greater  part  of  the  animal  food  raised  in  the  West,  comes 
directly  to  us.  Cotton  begins  to  follow  in  the  same  direction. 
Nothing  but  the  inability  of  our  railroads  for  want  of  rolling 
stock,  prevented  very  large  quantities  from  coming  North  the 
present  year  over  the  interior  routes.  The  threatened  disturb- 
ances on  the  Southern  frontier  will  have  an  immediate  ef- 
fect to  increase  the  quantity.  As  soon  as  the  necessary  fa- 
cilities are  supplied  there  is  no  doubt  that  cotton  will  come 
forward  in  large  quantities,  both  for  manufacture  and  expor- 
tation. In  fact,  the  trade  of  every  foot  of  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi  is  a  subject  of  legitimate  competition  by  our  mer- 
chants, and  may  conveniently  be  brought  into  our  harbors 
over  our  own  works.  The  navigable  waters  of  the  Ohio  come 
within  about  three  hundred  miles  of  those  of  the  Atlantic, 
while  those  of  the  great  Lakes  are  within  one  hundred  and 
eighty.  Freight  can  as  well  go  up  as  down  the  river,  while 
the  loss  from  insurance  and  delay  of  transportation  by  the 
mouth  of  the  river  and  arouud  the  Florida  Keys,  will 
render  the  interior  the  cheaper  route,  to  say  nothing  of  its 
greater  convenience,  and  the  low  rates  between  the  Eastern 
Atlantic  cities  and  Europe. 

In  order  to  give  a  clear  idea  of  the  amount  of  Western 
produce  sent  East  over  artificial  lines  of  improvement,  we  an- 
nex a  table  of  the  through  Eastern  bound  freight  of  the  five 
great  routes — the  Erie  Canal,  New  York  Central,  New  York 
and  Erie,  Pennsylvania,  and  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroads, 
since  1836,  in  which  year  the  Western  trade  over  the  Erie 
Canal  may  be  said  to  have  commenced.  The  tolls  on  the  New 
York  Central  Railroad  were  removed  in  1851 ,  the  Erie 
Railroad  was  opened  in  the  same  year.  The  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  was  opened  in  1852,  so  as  to  commence  a  through 
business  in  connection  with  the  Public  Works  of  Pennsylva- 
nia. The  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  was  also  opened  in 
1852.  The  tons  given  are  those  received  at  the  Western  ter- 
minus of  each  work,  and  delivered  at  tide-water : 


THE  MOUTHS  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 


33 


Year. 


1836 

1937 

1838 

1839 

1840 

1841 

1842 

1843 

1844 

1845 

1846 

1847 

1348 

1849 

1850 

1851 

1852 

1853 

1354 

1355 

1856 

1857 

1858 

VS59 

I860 

Total- 


TonsWestorn 

Do.  do.  1 

y  Do.  do.  by 

Do.  do.  by 

Total  tons  to 

produce  com- 

New    Yor 

k   New    York 

Do.  do.  by 

Bait,  and 

tide-wiitor 

and  Erie 

Ponn'a 

Ohio 

from 

Krie  Canal 

Railroac 

.     Railroad. 

Railroad. 

Railroad. 

West.  States. 

54,219 

54,219 

56,255 

55,255 

83,233 

83,233 

121,671 

121,671 

158,148 

153,148 

224,176 

224,176 

221,477 

221,477 

256,376 

.... 

256,376 

308,025 

. 

308,025 

304,551 

.... 

304,551 

506,830 

506,830 

812,840 

812,840 

650,154 

650,154 

768,659 

768,659 

773,858 

773,858 

966,993 

966,993 

1,151,978 

48,00 

0        48,000 

1,247,978 

1,213,690 

70,00 

0        70,000 

38,837 

21,014 

1,413,641 

1,100,526 

117,0C 

]        77,161 

53,825 

90,368 

1,438,880 

1,092,876 

147,50 

0      113,331 

106,407 

72,779 

1,532,893 

1,212,550 

172,78 

1      202,682 

88,707 

145,598 

1,822,323 

919,998 

179,64 

7       157,820 

94,905 

126,323 

1,478,693 

1,273,099 

229,27 

5      224,886 

141,268 

171,084 

2,039,611 

1,036,634 

234,24 

1       171,206 

129,767 

135,127 

1,706,775 

1,500,000 

293,52 
1,495,92 

0      300,000 
3   1,3S7,086 

150,000 

149,651 

2,393,171 

16,763,816 

803,716 

912,544 

21,348,085 

The  number  of  tons  of  Western  Produce  delivered  annu- 
ally at  tide  water  over  these  routes,  exceed  twice  the  number 
of  tons  of  all  kinds  of  produce  delivered  at  New  Orleans, 
*ind  considerably  exceed  the  same  in  value.  The  freight  over 
the  New  York  routes  is  so  classified  that  an  accurate  idea  can 
be  formed  of  its  value.  The  subjoined  statement  will  show 
the  tonnage  of  the  two  great  railroads  of  the  State  for  1860, 
with  the  estimate  value  of  each  class  of  freight : 


TRANSPORTED  BY 
CENTRAL    RAILROAD. 


Products  of  forest 

Products  of  animals 

Vegetable  food 

Other  agricultural  products- 

M  nnufactures 

Merchandise 

Miscellaneous 


Tctal 1,028,3S1   $180,974,720 


Tons. 

42,705 
223,362 
343,872 
39,167 
77,256 
201,587 
1 00,632 


Value. 


$946,100 

44,672,400 

13,754,880 

537,520 

19,314,000 

100793,500 

1,006,320 


TRANSPORTED  BY 

ERIE 

iAILROAD. 

Tons. 

Value. 

. 



118,889 

$2,377,780 

201,823 

40,364,600 

197,232 

7,889,280 

19,909 

298,635 

113,948 

27,487,000 

198,610 

99,305,000 

289,140 

2,691,400 





1,119,551 

$180,613,695 

36  THE  MOUTHS  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 

In  the  above  statement  products  of  the  forest  are  valued 
at  $20  the  ton  ;  products  of  animals  at  $200  ;  vegetable  food 
at  $50 ;  other  agricultural  products  at  $15  ;  manufactures  at 
$250  ;  merchandize  at  $500,  and  miscellaneous  freight  at  $10 
per  too.  The  total  tonnage  of  both  roads  was  2,167,736, 
valued  at  $361,893,425.  The  number  of  tons  carried  on  the 
New  York  Canals  for  1859  was  3,781,684,  valued  at  $132,- 
560,758.  We  have  received  only  a  statement  of  freight  com- 
ing to  tide-water  for  1860,  which  equaled  2,916,066  tons, 
valued  at  $80,458,585,  against  2,121,672  tons  for  1859..  valued 
at  $53,175,312.  Assuming  a  rate  of  increase  equal  to  that 
coming  to  tide-water,  of  freight  moving  in  other  directions, 
the  total  tonnage  on  the  Canal  the  past  year  was  5,216,464 
tons,  equaling  in  value  $182,932,800.  The  total  tonnage  of 
the  three  routes  was  7,384,210,  valued  at  $544,186,705.  The 
tonnage  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  the  past  year,  exclusive 
of  coal,  was  823,302  tons ;  that  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
Railroad  592,559.  The  total  tonnage  of  the  five  great  outlets 
of  the  Lakes  and  Mississippi  Valley,  eastward,  exclusive  of 
the  Ogdenburg  and  Grand  Trunk  Railroads  and  Canadian 
Canals  was  8,799,961  tons,  equaling  in  value  very  nearly,  if  not 
quite,  $700,000,000 ! 

This  vast  commerce,  nearly  every  dollar  of  which  is  due  to 
the  construction  of  our  Public  Works,  is  one  of  the  most 
marvelous  creations  of  modern  times.  It  strikingly  illustrates 
the  method  of  our  people  on  this  Continent,  and  how  insuffi- 
cient are  natural  advantages  unless  backed  by  energy  and 
skill,  against  those  who  possess  hardly  anything  but  these 
qualities. 

Thirty-six  years  ago  it  cost  $100  the  ton  to  transport  a  ton 
of  merchandize  over  either  of  the  three  routes  between  New 
York  and  Lake  Erie.  Over  the  Erie  Canal  the  cost  per  ton 
the  past  year,  between  the  same  points,  averaged  only  $3. 
The  effect  of  such  reduction,  in  transportation  charges,  was 
to  enlarge  in  an  equal  degree  the  area  of  the  trade  of  this 
great  work.  With  a  cost  of  $10  per  ton  this  area  would  be 
described  by  a  line  drawn  only  a  few  miles  from  the  shores 


THE  MOUTHS  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  37 

of  the  Great  Lakes.  Every  cent  below  tliis  rate  pushed  this 
boundary  in  every  direction  further  inland.  The  reduction 
of  a  dollar  in  transportation  charges  between  Buffalo  and 
New  York  has  the  effect  to  increase  the  radius  of  this  bound- 
ary fifty  miles.  Assuming  the  previous  length  of  such  radius 
to  have  been  two  hundred  miles,  the  extent  of  territories  made 
tributary  to  the  Canal,  and  to  the  trade  of  the  City,  would 
equal  35,000  square  miles.  The  reduction  of  another  dollar 
per  ton  on  cost  of  transportation  would  annex  another  area 
equal  to  45,000  square  miles. 

This  has  been  the  method  of  the  aggressions  of  the  people 
of  the  manufacturing  and  commercial  States  of  the  East  upon 
the  interior.  By  constant  reductions  in  the  cost  of  transpor- 
tation they  have  steadily  pushed  further  and  further  inland 
the  line  of  debatable  ground  between  the  artificial  and  na- 
tural outlets  of  the  great  valley,  till  they  have  turned  directly 
to  themselves  almost  the  entire  trade  of  the  North-West. 

No  statement  can  convey  an  adequate  idea  of  the  extent 
of  the  trade  in  breadstuffs  of  the  City  of  New  York.  The 
deliveries  from  the  Canal  at  tide-water,  the  past  year,  equaled 
1,367,563  tons,  valued  at  $48,183,044.  The  Erie  and  Central 
Railroads  transported  (nearly  all  to  tide-water)  540,000  tons 
of  vegetable  food.  Estimating  500,000  tons  of  this  amount 
to  be  breadstuffs,  mostly  Flour,  and  worth  $50  per  ton,  its 
value  was  equal  to  $25,000,000.  The  aggregate  tonnage 
brought  to  tide-water  by  the  three  routes  was  worth  at  least 
$73,184,044.  Reducing  the  barrels  of  Flour  to  bushels,  the 
whole  number  of  bushels  that  came  to  the  New  York  market 
the  past  year,  through  her  three  channels,  equaled  71,384,143 
bushels ! 

Of  animal  food  the  two  railroads  brought  to  tide-water  the 
past  year,  425,185  tons,  worth  on  the  average  $200  per  ton,  and 
in  the  aggregate $85,037,000.  The  Canal  brought  12,574  tons, 
valued  at  $2,766,694.  The  aggregate  value  brought  by  the 
three  routes  was  $87,803,694.  The  aggregate  tonnage  of 
breadstuffs  and  animal  food  brought  to  tide-water,  the  past 
year,  was  2,305,321   tons,  and  their  aggregate  value  $160,- 


38 


THE  MOUTHS  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 


906,778,  a  sum  nearly,  if  not  quite,  equal  to  the  value  of 
the  Cotton  crop  of  the  United  States  the  past  year.  If  we 
add  the  value  of  the  vegetable  and  animal  food  brought  to 
tide-water,  the  past  year,  from  the  Western  States  over  the 
Pennsylvania  and  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroads,  the  aggre- 
gate will  be  over  $200,000,000  ! 

Against  this  movement  on  the  Eastern  routes,  there  were 
received  at  New  Orleans,  the  past  year,  by  way  of  the  Missis- 
sippi River,  965,860  barrels  of  Flour,  13,116  sacks  of  Wheat, 
1,722,037  sacks  of  Com,  659,550  bushels  of  Oats,  216,523 
barrels  and  1,874  hogsheads  of  Pork,  83,922  barrels  of  Lard, 
44,934  barrels  and  tierces  of  Beef,  and  82,819  casks  and 
hogsheads  of  Bacon.  Reducing  the  Flour  to  bushels,  the 
total  number  of  bushels  of  grain  received  at  New  Orleans 
was  5,687,399,  against  71,384,143  received  at  tide-water  over 
the  New  York  lines,  or  at  least  85,000,000  bushels  over  all 
the  five  great  Eastern  outlets.  The  tons  of  animal  food  re- 
ceived at  New  Orleans  the  past  year,  was  95,700,  against 
437,759  by  the  New  York  routes,  or  adding  the  tonnage  of 
animal  food  brought  by  the  Pennsylvania  and  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  Railroads,  against,  probably,  525,000  tons  on  the  five 
Eastern  outlets  of  the  great  valley. 

The  exports  of  the  above  articles  from  New  Orleans,  the 
past  year,  both  foreign  and  coastwise,  were  as  follows  : 


ExronTS  to 


New  York 

Boston 

Philadelphia 

Baltimore 

Other  Coastwise  Ports 

Grsat  Britain 

Cuba 

Other  Foreign  Ports- 

Total 


FLOUR. 

PORK. 

BACON. 

Casks. 

LARD. 

BEEF. 

Bbls. 

Bbls. 

Bbls. 

9,948 

1,061 

260 

7,396 

7,846 

37,380 

6,461 

Bbls. 

9,878 

1,699 

10 

3,019 

5,495 

735 

863 

10,862 
41,524 

247,231 

6,341 

6.478 

7<115 

S68 
2,097 

45,572 

89 

1,307 

3,120 

271 
91 

28,565 

1,461 
305 

386,511 

53,050 

30,693 

70,852 

21,699 

Sacks. 

37  243 
22J410 


498,916 
52,448 
27,065 
14,288 

652,370 


Of  the  breadstuff's  exported  from  New  Orleans  the  past 
year,  only  58,727  barrels  of  Flour  and  112,101  sacks  of  Corn 


THE  MOUTHS  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  39 

were  sent  to  the  Eastern  States  and  Great  Britain,  the  value 
of  which  did  not  exceed  $570,50-1.  Of  Provisions  there  were 
exported  in  the  same  direction  3,055  barrels  of  Pork,  302 
casks  of  Bacon,  18,871  barrels  of  Lard,  and  17,082  barrels 
of  Beef,  the  value  of  the  whole  not  exceeding  §000,000.  In 
other  words,  the  total  exports  of  breadstuff's  and  provisions, 
the  products  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  sent  to  the  Eastern 
States  and  Great  Britain,  the  past  year,  did  not  exceed 
$1,200,000  in  value.  The  exports  coastwise  were  to  Gulf  ports; 
and  to  other  Foreign  ports — Mexico  and  the  West  Indies. 
These  exports  would  have  gone  by  way  of  the  Mississippi 
for  convenience  of  distribution,  whoever  held  the  mouth  of 
that  liiver.  The  imports  into  New  Orleans,  for  consumption, 
are  not  to  be  affected  by  political  changes  unless  they  weaken 
its  ability  to  consume. 

These  facts  show  how  small  a  proportion  of  the  products 
of  the  North-Western  States  goes  to  market  by  way  of  the 
Mississippi  River.  The  produce  received  at  New  Orleans 
came  almost  entirely  from  the  Southern  States — the  Flour 
from  St.  Louis,  and  the  Corn  and  Bacon  from  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee.  It  is  not  probable  that  one-fiftieth  of  the  total 
exports  of  grain  from  the  North-West  went  down  the  Missis- 
sippi. Of  other  articles  of  export,  Wool,  Lumber,  Butter, 
Cheese,  Hides,  etc.,  etc.,  no  portion  whatever  is  sent  down  the 
Mississippi — the  whole  going  direct  to  the  Eastern  States. 

These  facts  are  stated,  not  by  way  of  invidious  comparison, 
but  to  show  the  power  that  resides  in  the  North  and  East  by 
▼irtue  of  their  numbers,  wealth,  industries  and  means  of  in- 
tercommunication, and  how  completely  these  sections  have 
changed  the  direction  of  the  great  routes  of  commerce  of  the 
interior.  The  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  which  only 
a  few  years  ago  was  considered  so  indispensable,  is  for  the 
North-Western  States  an  imaginary  rather  than  a  real  neces- 
sity. They  would  not,  of  course,  consent  that  any  of  their 
outlets  should  be  closed,  as  it  might  increase  the  exactions  of 
others,  and,  as  extraordinary  emergencies  might  occur,  creat- 
ing interruptions  in  those  now  used.     It  is  not  probable  that 


40  THE  MOUTHS  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 

the  people  of  New  Orleans  ever  will  allow  the  free  navigation 
of  its  great  feeder  to  be  interfered  with,  as  this  would  threaten 
the  destruction  of  their  wealth  and  trade.  The  peaceable 
effect  of  Secession  may  be  to  close  its  mouth,  in  which  event 
the  entire  trade  of  the  Valley  could  be  easily,  and  in  the  end 
to  the  convenience  and  benefit  of  all,  sent  over  the  Northern 
and  Eastern  routes. 

It  may  be  assumed  that  the  cotton  grown  in  Tennessee,  a 
portion  of  Alabama,  all  Mississippi  and  Arkansas,  and  a  part 
of  Louisiana,  can  be  delivered  at  Cairo  as  cheaply  as  at  New 
Orleans.  From  Cairo  to  New  York,  $4  a  bale,  or  $16  a  ton, 
would  afford  a  fair  business  to  the  carrier.  From  New  Or- 
leans to  New  York,  by  the  outside  route,  including  charges 
at  the  former  place,  and  insurance,  the  rate  cannot  be  estimat- 
ed at  less  than  a  cent  to  a  cent  and  a  quarter  per  pound.  In 
favor  of  the  interior  route  is  time,  climate  and  uniform  health. 
There  is  now  annually  consumed  in  the  Northern  and  Eastern 
States,  nearly  one  million  of  bales.  Our  manufacturing  es- 
tablishments are  already  receiving  large  amounts  through  the 
interior  routes,  which  will  be  steadily  increased  till  the  greater 
part  consumed  reaches  them  in  this  manner.  All  the  railroads 
connecting  the  interior  with  the  Eastern  States,  are  making 
extensive  provision  for  this  new  traffic,  which  is  certain  to  be 
secured  by  our  method  of  low  charges,  and  by  the  great 
advantages  which  New  York,  Boston  and  Philadelphia  pre- 
sent as  the  ports  of  shipment. 

If,  as  now  appears  certain,  New  Orleans  follows  in  the 
wake  of  Charleston,  that  port  will  be  speedily  closed.  Seces- 
sion by  a  State  is  followed  by  precisely  the  same  steps  as  the 
commission  of  a  wrong  by  an  individual.  He  arms  himself, 
and  immediately  commences  erecting  barriers  for  defence. 
Charleston  has  filled  the  channel  of  her  harbor  with  sunken 
ships,  a  defence  for  an  anticipated  attack,  and  destroyed  her 
commerce  at  the  same  time.  New  Orleans  will  necessarily 
repeat  the  example  set  her,  and  virtually  close  her  port. 
With  Secession,  the  day  of  her  commercial  greatness  is  past. 
Hereafter,  the  trade  peculiar  to  her  must  flow  North.     From 


THE  MOUTHS  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 


41 


the  present  year,  shall  we  number  Cotton  received  through 
our  interior  routes  as  an  important  item  in  our  exports.  Once 
gained,  it  is  a  business  we  shall  never  lose.  With  it  we  shall 
sweep  the  trade  of  the  whole  interior.  Already  are  the  rail- 
roads of  the  Western  States  and  the  connecting  lines  to  the 
Eastern,  glutted  with  freights  which,  up  to  the  present  year, 
went  down  the  Mississippi  to  New  Orleans.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  the  trade,  both  foreign  and  domestic,  of  the  great 
Eastern  cities,  the  present  year,  will  exceed  in  amount  that 
of  any  one  in  their  past  history.  They  will  retain  all  they 
had,  while  Secession  will  hand  over  to  them  the  greater  part 
of  that  which  in  times  of  peace  had  concentrated  itself  in  the 
cities  of  the  Gulf  and  the  Lower  Mississippi. 

While,  with  the  Public  Works  now  constructed,  the  North- 
ern cities  have  already  monopolized  the  greater  portion  of  the 
trade  of  the  interior,  their  means  for  extending  this  trade  are 
yearly  increasing.  The  Erie  Canal  opens  this  year,  for  the 
first  time,  with  an  available  depth  of  water  of  seven  feet. 
The  great  lines  of  Railroads  are  steadily  increasing  their  fa- 
cilities and  accommodations.  Rates  are  so  graduated  to 
command  freight.  The  manner  in  which  these  have  been 
steadily  reduced  on  the  Erie  Canal,  so  as  to  secure  trade  and 
meet  the  competition  of  other  routes,  is  strikingly  illustrated 
by  the  following  table,  which  shows  the  cost  of  transporta- 
tion over  this  work,  including  tolls,  since  1836  : 


FROM  ALBANY 

FROM   BUFFALO 

TO  BUFFALO. 

TO   ALBANY. 

YEAR. 





Cost  per  ton. 

Cost  per  ton. 

1836-- • 

821.00 

87.13 

1337- •• 

IS  60 

7.50 

1838 •• • 

17.80 

6  76 

1 839 • - • 

17.80 

6.44 

1840-.- 

16.60 

7.50 

1841--  • 

12.20 

6  57 

1842-.. 

13.20 

602 

1843--  • 

1120 

6.56 

1844--  • 

13.00 

5.56 

1845-- 

9.60 

6.57 

1846--  • 

8.00 

5  92 

1847  ••  • 

7.80 

\           7.13 

1848- 
1849- 
1850- 
1851  - 
1852- 
1853- 
1854- 
1855- 
1856- 
1857- 
1858. 
1359- 


FROM  ALBANY 
TO  BUFFALO. 

Cost  per  ton. 


87.80 
7.80 
7.20 
6  20 
5.20 
5.60 
5.00 
5.00 
5.40 
4.80 
2.80 
2.40 


FROM  BUFFALO 
TO  ALBANY. 


Cost  per  ton. 


$5.37 
5.18 
5  48 
4.71 
4.90 
5  18 
4.81 
4.81 
5.56 
4.26 
3  14 
2.87 


42  WHERE  SHALL  THE  BORDER  STATES  GO  { 

The  rates  of  charges  on  the  Railroads  have  been  reduced. 
in  an  equal  degree.  In  1856,  the  Central  and  Erie  Railroads 
received  three  cents  for  every  ton  of  freight  moved  one  mile. 
In  1860  they  received  only  two  cents  for  the  same  service. 
The  economies  introduced  into  the  management  of  these  roads 
have  probably  reduced  the  expenses  to  an  equal  extent. 

"  Secession"  is  likely  to  lead  to  the  construction  of  another 
work  of  great  importance  in  connection  with  the  trade  of  the 
"West,  and  which  has  long  occupied  public  attention — a  ship 
canal  between  Lake  Michigan,  at  Chicago,  and  the  Illinois 
River.  It  is  well  known  that  the  summit  between  the  Lake 
and  the  River  is  only  eight  feet.  A  comparatively  small 
sum  only,  considering  the  result  to  be  achieved,  is  required 
for  this  work,  which  would  send  a  portion  of  the  waters  of 
the  three  great  upper  Lakes  down  the  Mississippi !  The 
flow  of  this  water  would  render  the  Illinois  River  navigable 
at  all  times,  and  as  far  as  its  commerce  and  that  of  its  great 
recipient  are  concerned,  their  mouths  would  be  literally  on 
Lake  Michigan.  The  realization  of  this  project  cannot  be 
far  off,  when  the  works  necessary  to  give  a  Northerly  direc- 
tion to  all  portions  of  the  great  valley  will  be  complete. 


WHERE  SHALL  THE  BORDER  STATES  GO? 

In  the  Cotton  States  the  influence  of  climate  has,  in  their 
opinion,  rendered  African  Slavery  a  necessity,  an  institution 
to  be  cherished  and  maintained.  The  people  there  see  noth- 
ing better  in  the  future  than  what  this  is  to  bring.  It  being 
their  capital,  upon  the  earnings  of  which  they  depend  for  ex- 
istence, its  protection  and  development  engross  their  whole 
being.  Hence  the  striking  contrasts  they  present  in  sentiment, 
opinion  and  aims  to  the  people  of  the  Free  States.  The  two  are 
antipodes.  But  these  diversities  come  into  direct  collision  in 
the  Border  States,  where  slavery  exists  by  accident,  and  must 
in  time  certainly  disappear,  yielding  to  industries  better 
adapted  to  their  climate  and  resources.     In  a    crisis    like  the 


WHERE  SHALL  THE  BORDER  STATES  GO  ?  43 

present,  it  is  natural  that  there  should  be  great  sympathy  be- 
tween the  people  of  these  States  and  those  further  South,  as 
both  are  still  supporting  an  institution  the  morality  of  whichj 
they  fancy,  is  attacked,  casting  upon  both  the  same  implica- 
tion, and  which  both  of  them  so  strenuously  resent.  On  the 
other  hand  it  is  felt  that  from  the  influences  at  work,  and 
which  they  cannot  resist,  the  Border  States  must  become  more 
and  more  like  the  Free  States,  towards  which  they  now  feel  a 
strong  antipathy,  and  less  like  their  Southern  brethren,  with 
whom  they  are  in  close  sympathy.  Under  such  circumstances 
the  question  of  the  direction  in  which  they  shall  go  is  one  of 
the  utmost  importance  as  well  as  of  embarrassment. 

It  is,  without  doubt,  for  their  interest  to  have  their  present 
political  status  continue,  unless  they  accept  the  extreme  pro- 
position that  the  measure  best  calculated  to  promote  their  in- 
terest is  that  which  soonest  puts  an  end  to  slavery,  as  the 
division  of  the  country  upon  their  northern  frontier  would  be 
sure  to  do.  But  extreme  measures  are  always  to  be  avoided, 
and  it  is  of  the  highest  importance  that  one  kind  of  labor 
should,  as  fast  as  it  disappears,  be  replaced  by  another.  It  is 
for  the  interest  of  the  Border  States,  therefore,  to  have  the 
Union  continue  as  it  is,  so  that  while  the  slave  is  gradually 
moved  toward  the  Cotton  States,  his  place  shall  be  supplied 
by  an  influx  of  free  labor  from  the  North. 

Experience  has  fully  proved  that  in  the  Border  States  there 
is  no  more  room  for  slaves.  Take  for  illustration  the  case  of 
Virginia.  The  number  of  slaves  in  this  State  has  increased, 
from  1830  to  1860,  from  469,009  to  495,000,  or  at  the 
rate  of  only  about  five  per  cent,  for  the  thirty  years.  The 
free  population  in  the  meantime  had  increased  from  694,000 
to  1,097,000,  or  at  the  rate  of  forty-three  per  cent.  Slave 
labor  in  this  State  by  no  means  increases  in  ratio  to  the 
amount  of  new  land  brought  into  cultivation.  The  moment 
this  is  fully  occupied  the  number  will  immediately  begin  to 
decrease.  Virginia,  therefore,  has  no  more  room  for  slaves. 
If  the  slave  trade  should  be  opened  it  would  not  add  one  to 
her  present  number,  except  so  far  as  it  would  check  the  ex- 


44  WHERE  SHALL  THE  BORDER  STATES  GO? 

portation  to  other  States.  This  is  the  very  thing  that  Virginia 
has  most  to  fear.  The  opening  of  this  trade  would  strike  a 
fatal  blow  at  the  value  of  property  which  she  considers  worth 
at  least  $300,000,000,  and  the  yearly  exportation  of  which 
produces  many  millions.  To  retain  the  number  of  slaves 
annually  exported,  would  overstock  her  own  market,  and 
largely  reduce  the  aggregate  value  of  slaves  in  the  State,  not- 
withstanding their  greatly  increased  numbers.  Virginia  con- 
siders it  indispensable  to  retain  the  monopoly  of  supplying 
the  new  States  with  negroes.  The  cry  on  the  other  hand, 
from  those  States  is  cheap  labor,  which  they  fancy  they  can  get 
only  by  opening  the  slave  trade. 

If,  therefore,  it  be  the  interest  of  Virginia  to  maintain 
slavery,  this  is  only  possible  in  the  Union.  Out  of  it,  the- 
price  of  slaves  would  fall  to  a  degree  that  would  render  the 
whole  institution  an  incumbrance  not  worth  maintaining.  In 
case  of  dissolution,  the  fear  of  losing  them  would  send  them 
all  out  of  the  State  in  a  comparatively  short  time.  Should 
Virginia  join  the  Southern  Confederacy,  a  conflict  of  interest 
would  leave  her  without  position  or  influence,  even  while  she 
retained  her  slaves,  and  an  object  of  aversion  and  distrust,  as 
she  would  soon  lose  them  to  a  degree  to  show  she  must  even- 
tually become  a  Free  State.  The  alternative,  consequently, 
presented  is,  whether  she  shall  change  her  position  as  the  most 
central  and  influential  State  in  the  present  Confederacy,  or 
become  an  unwelcome  and  suspected  member  of  one  to  which 
all  her  interests  are  hostile,  and  which  must  be  without  strength 
dignity  or  power. 

But  while  Virginia  has  no  more  room  for  slaves,  she  has 
still  boundless  room  for  freemen.  As  man  is  the  most  valuable 
product  of  society,  the  excellence  of  its  institutions  and  in- 
dustries are  to  be  measured  in  exact  ratio  of  their  tendency 
to  promote  increase  of  numbers,  assuming,  of  course,  a  cor- 
responding increase  in  the  means  for  their  support.  This  is  a 
standard  universally  acknowledged,  and  by  none  more  em- 
phatically than  Virginia.  As  a  means  of  increasing  her 
population  and  wealth,  she  has  incurred  a  debt  of  nearly 


WHERE  SHALL  THE  BORDER  STATES  GO  7  45 

$40,000,000,  which  she  proposes  greatly  to  increase  before 
the  completion  of  her  system.  By  means  of  these  works  she 
hopes  to  develope  the  boundless  wealth  that  lies  hid  in  her 
soil,  to  turn  to  use  her  vast  water  power,  and  to  build  up  de- 
pots of  trade  upon  her  magnificent  harbors.  This  she  can 
only  do  by  the  use  of  a  higher  grade  labor  than  she  now  em- 
ploys. A  population  devoted  to  agriculture,  after  reaching  a 
certain  point,  always  remains  stationary.  It  reached  that 
point  in  Eastern  Virginia  forty  years  ago.  In  this  period  the 
who.le  population  of  the  country  increased  350  per  cent. 
Could  Virginia  have  retained  her  natural  increase  she  would 
now  have  had  a  population  of  3,628,826,  or  nearly  as  great 
as  that  of  New  York,  instead  of  1,593,000,  the  present  num- 
ber. Pennsylvania,  an  adjoining  State,  with  no  greater  ad- 
vantages, and  greatly  inferior  in  resources  in  many  respects, 
had  a  less  population  in  1820  than  Virginia.  It  has  one  now 
nearly  twice  as  great,  with  ten-fold  greater  wealth. 

The  cause  of  the  difference  between  the  two  is  just  as  pal- 
pable as  the  difference  itself.  Pennsylvania  cultivates  a 
variety  of  pursuits  ;  consequently  she  has  a  population  of  6-4 
to  the  square  mile,  against  26  in  Virginia.  Massachusetts, 
with  her  sterile  soil  and  inhospitable  climate,  has  a  population 
of  160  to  the  square  mile.  The  same  ratio  would  give  Vir- 
ginia a  population  of  10,000,000!  If  the  resources  of 
Virginia  were  as  thoroughly  cultivated  as  those  of  Massa- 
chusetts, she  would  have  to-day  a  population  of  20,000,000  ! 
She  has  the  means  of  giving  lucrative  employment  and  an 
ample  support  to  such  a  population.  The  creation  of  it  upon 
her  own  soil,  and  within  a  comparatively  short  time,  rests 
solely  upon  the  question  of  the  industries  she  may  adopt. 
The  agricultural  population  of  Massachusetts  to-day  is  not  as 
large  as  it  was  fifty  years  ago,  yet  her  total  population  in  the 
meantime  has  gone  from  474,000  to  1,231,000,  and  very  nearly 
in  ratio  with  the  increase  for  the  whole  country.  She  has 
been  true  to  the  spirit  and  genius  ot  the  age,  and  has,  conse- 
quently, kept  up  with  its  progress.  Virginia,  on  the  other 
hand,  has  hardly  begun  to  appropriate  to  herself  the  agencies 


46       WHERE  SHALL  THE  BORDER  STATES  GO? 

and  powers  upon  which  progress  in  wealth  and  population 
in  these  modern  times  is  based.  Since  1810,  the  ratio  of  in- 
crease of  her  numbers  has  been  only  about  one  half  as  great 
as  that  of  England  and  Wales.  The  increase  of  the  popula- 
tion of  the  former,  from  1810  to  1850,  was  from  974,622  to 
1,421,662,  or  at  the  rate  of  45  per  cent.  That  of  England 
and  Wales,  from  1811  to  1851,  went  from  11,970,120  to  20,- 
816,351,  or  at  the  rate  of  80  per  cent.  This  is  a  fact  which 
must  strike  most  people  with  astonishment.  Yet  there  is  no 
doubt  that  with  the  use  of  the  same  means  that  have  in- 
creased so  rapidly  the  population  of  England,  every  emigrant 
sent  out  by  Virginia  to  the  new  States  might  have  been  more 
profitably  employed  at  home.  She  has  room  for  ten  times 
her  present  population,  without  being  crowded.  There  is  no 
State  in  the  Union  which  should  have  so  large  a  population ; 
none  in  which  labor  should  be  more  productive  or  better 
paid. 

In  which  direction,  then,  in  the  present  crisis,  shall  Virginia 
incline?  To  a  system  which,  with  vast  resources,  has  ren- 
dered her  progress  in  population,  for  the  past  forty  years,  only 
about  one-half  as  great  as  that  of  England,  and  which  must 
soon  bring  even  this  slow  increase  to  a  dead  stand  ?  or  to 
one  that  duplicates  the  population  of  the  whole  country  every 
twenty -five  years,  and  increases  its  power,  and  wealth,  and 
means  of  support,  in  much  greater  ratio  ?  Will  she  join  a 
Confederacy  of  which  she  must  constitute  the  mere  append- 
age to  a  central  power  far  removed  and  hostile  to  all  her  in- 
terests, or  will  she  remain  as  the  influential  member  of  the 
one  that  has  given  her  all  her  power,  dignity  and  historical 
influence,  which  protects  whatever  she  conceives  to  be  her 
interest,  and  under  the  fostering  care  of  which  she  can  un- 
fold in  just  such  directions  as  may  suit  the  tastes,  habits  and 
industries  of  her  people  ? 

Whatever  direction  the  Border  States  may  take  they  must 
daily  more  and  more  resemble  the  Free  States,  both  in  their 
industries  and  ideas.  They  have  a  similarity  of  climate  and 
soil,  and  which  pre-eminently  invite  the  introduction  and  use 


"WHERE  SHALL  THE  BORDER  STATES  GO!  47 

of  the  mechanic  arts,  and  a  high  grade  of  agricultural  labor. 
With  homogeneousness  of  interest  there  will  also  of  ideas. 
This  really  would  be  most  rapidly  promoted  by  going  with 
the  South,  as  dissolution  would  put  an  end  to  slavery,  when 
the  last  difference  between  the  Border  and  Free  States  would 
be  removed,  and  their  reunion  would  take  place  as  a  matter 
of  course.  But  even  should  they  assume  to  go  South,  such 
would  be  the  disastrous  results,  that  reconstruction  would 
follow  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  but  not  until  a  sacrifice  of 
material  interests  had  been  made  which  would  take  a  gene- 
ration to  repair. 

The  Southern  States  secede,  to  escape  what  they  term  the 
Anti-Slavery  tendencies  of  the  North.  But  they  carry  with 
them  precisely  the  same  tendencies,  and  from  which  escape  is 
impossible.  The  contrasts  in  the  physical  features  and  ma- 
terial conditions  of  portions  of  most  of  the  Slave  States  are 
as  striking  as  between  these  and  the  Free  States,  and,  in  many 
cases,  more  so.  Take  Virginia.  Here  is  a  standing  quarrel, 
as  bitter  and  well  defined  as  those  between  Massachusetts 
and  South  Carolina.  It  is  the  same  story.  In  the  Eastern 
portion  the  slave  predominates  ;  in  the  Western,  freemen. 
The  slaveholding  counties  have  now  the  advantage  in  the 
Legislature.  This  gives  them  control  in  all  matters  of  taxa- 
tion, and  in  a  thousand  questions  of  local  legislation.  The 
Western  portion  increases  rapidly ;  the  Eastern  not  at  all. 
The  West  is  healthy,  full  of  minerals,  and  well  adapted  to 
manufactures.  The  East  is  wanting  in  all  these.  The  West 
is  too  near  the  Ohio  to  trust  the  negro  in  it.  His  place  is 
being  taken  by  white  laborers.  Here  is  the  irrepressible  con- 
flict raging  on  Soicthern  soil.  The  West  complains  that  the 
slave  is  represented  in  the  legislature  without  bearing  his 
proportion  of  tax.  The  two  sections  are  becoming  more  and 
more  antagonistic.  Their  differences  are  stated  with  as  much 
acrimony  as  those  between  the  North  and  South.  How  is 
this  element  of  disunion  to  be  quelled?  Virginia  can  escape 
from  it  no  more  in  a  Southern  Confederacy  than  in  the  Union. 
It  will  continue  till  one  party  or  the  other  goes  to  the  wall 


48  EFFECT  OF  SECESSION  ON  THE  SOUTH. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  see  on  which  side  victory  inclines.  In 
1864  the  question  of  representation  is  to  be  submitted  to  the 
popular  vote,  when  the  West  will  have  matters  her  own  way. 
How  is  such  a  rebellion  to  be  put  down  in  the  new  Confeder- 
acy ?  It  will  not  be  confined  to  Virginia,  nor  to  North  Caro- 
lina, nor  to  Tennessee.  The  whole  range  of  the  Alleghanies 
to  within  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  the  Gulf,  is  full  of 
treasonable  elements — iron,  coal,  lead,  copper  and  zinc — with  a 
fertile  soil,  and  a  climate  admirably  adapted  to  white  labor 
and  the  mechanic  arts.  It  will  soon  be  the  theatre  of  industries 
in  which  the  unlettered  slave  can  never  take  part.  Along  this 
greathighwayhas  theeolumnof  Northmen  already  commenced 
its  grand  march,  which  the  South  can  never  for  a  moment 
stay,  unless  they  disembowel  the  earth  of  its  treasures,  taint 
the  pure  air,  and  smite  with  sterility  the  soil. 

In  its  progress  Northern  society  does  not  ask  or  desire 
quiet.  All  progress  is  disturbance — displacement,  in  which 
the  ghost  of  the  old  is  not  yielded  without  a  struggle.  If  the 
South  desire  quiet,  they  must  not  include  one  foot  of  Terri- 
tory about  which  it  can  be  debated  whether  it  be  better 
adapted  to  Slavery  or  Freedom.  If  they  do,  then  the  only 
course  will  be  to  obliterate  State  lines  altogether,  and  estab- 
lish the  despotism  of  perpetual  silence.  This  is  the  only  es- 
cape from  the  discussion  of  vexed  questions.  To  such  a 
result  if  it  be  successful,  Secession  must  come.  If  the  old 
lines  are  preserved,  the  new  Ship  of  State  will  be  manned  by 
a  mutinous  crew,  who  will  in  time  use  and  capture  it,  or  com- 
pel a  division  of  both  vessel  and  cargo.  Would  it  not  be 
well  for  the  South  to  consider  these  things  before  the  fata) 
step  be  taken  and  ask  whether  it  be  not  better 

"  To  bear  the  ills  that  are, 
Than  fly  to  others  that  they  know  not  of?" 


EFFECT  OF  SECESSION   ON  THE    MATERIAL  INTERESTS 
OF  THE    SOUTH. 
The  South  produce  two  or  three  staples  which  they  can 
neither  consume  nor  convert  into  forms  fitting  them  for  use. 


E1FECT  OF  SECESSION  ON  TIIE  SOUTH.  49 

Their  labor  is  of  the  lowest  grade  and,  consequently,  only 
available  within  a  very  limited  range.  As  the  individual 
with  only  one  faculty  is  at  the  mercy  of  every  accident,  so  is 
a  nation  with  only  one  kind  of  industry.  When  this  fails,  or 
is  interrupted,  its  existence  is  threatened.  It  must  employ 
foreigners,  who  may  become  enemies,  to  perform  its  most  im- 
portant functions.  The  South  produce  cotton,  but  having 
neither  ships  nor  sailors,  have  to  employ  the  North  to  take  it 
to  market,  and  bring  back  the  proceeds.  If  the  North  are 
enemies,  then  an  enemy  must  be  employed.  The  South  de- 
pend upon  the  North  for  the  materials  that  give  military 
power ;  the  means  of  working  their  plantations,  and  moving 
their  products.  In  fact,  nearly  the  entire  commercial  ma- 
chinery of  the  South  is  moved  by  the  North.  The  South  is 
poor  for  money,  the  North  rich.  United  as  one  nation,  the 
strength  and  means  of  one  section  become  that  of  the  other. 
Previous  to  the  Secession  movement,  the  Southern  States 
were  getting  from  the  Northern  States  and  from  Europe,  the 
means  for  their  railroads  as  fast  as  they  could  show  any  claims 
to  credit.  Capital,  though  a  most  sensitive  thing,  is  cosmo- 
politan. That  of  the  world  stands  ready  for  the  service  of 
the  person  who  bids  highest,  other  things  being  equal.  United 
with  industry  and  skill,  it  carries  man  forward  in  his  grand 
march.  It  is  the  sine  qua  non  of  progress.  Thrown  upon  their 
own  accumulations,  a  community  would  be  a  generation  in 
accomplishing  results,  for  which  two  or  three  years  would  be 
ample,  using  the  capital  of  others.  In  the  "Western  States, 
10,000  miles  of  railroad  have  been  constructed  within  ten 
years,  which  have  cost  $400,000,000,  nearly  the  whole  amount 
of  which  was  supplied  from  the  accumulations  of  the  East 
and  Europe.  The  profits  of  this  investment  in  the  increased 
value  given  to  other  kinds  of  property,  and  in  causing  other 
investments  in  lands,  buildings,  manufactures  and  commerce, 
have  been  three  or  four  hundred  per  cent,  greater  than  the 
cost  of  the  railroads.  In  other  words,  the  Western  States, 
simply  by  the  use  of  other  people's  money,  have  put  into  their 
pockets  three  or   four  times  the  amount.     In  addition,  the 


50        EFFECT  OF  SECESSION  ON  TCE  SOUTH. 

Joans  are  perpetual,  at  a  low  rate  of  interest,  and  will  work 
for  all  time  in  adding  to  the  marvelous  results  already  accom- 
plished. 

Now,  if  the  "Western  States  had  been  in  relations  of  aliena- 
tion or  hostility  to  the  Eastern,  they  would  have  hardly  had 
the  first  mile  of  railroad,  or  a  canal — not  one-half  their  present 
population,  nor  one-tenth  their  wealth.     All  this  is  too  plain 
to  require  demonstration.     Their  roads  have  been  constructed, 
and  the  Southern  States,  which  were  about  ten  years  behind, 
were  taking  their  place.     But  instead  of  maintaining  the  re- 
lations that  accomplished  such  wonders  for  the  West,  they 
are  placing  themselves  in  hostile  attitudes  to  all  mankind, which 
will  cut  them  off  from  every  particle  of  capital  not  their  own, 
bring  all  their  improvements  to  a  full  stop,  paralyze  all  their 
industries,  and  leave  them  in  a  condition  of  the  most  pitiable 
exhaustion  and  prostration.     Take  the  case  of  Texas,   the 
people  of  which  are  now  so  rampant  for  Secession.     Oi  all 
Southern  States  she  is  most  in  need  of  capital,  particularly 
to  construct  her  public  works.     In  her  immense  area  she  has 
no  navigable  rivers,  and  is  absolutely  without  the  means  of 
sending  her  produce  to  market.     Twenty-five  million  of  dol- 
lars spent  in  railroads  in  this  State  would  add  ten  times  this 
f>nin  to  the  wealth  of  her  people.     With  Secession,  not  a  dol- 
lar of  this  $25,000,000  can  be  had.     She  recently  sent  Mr.  V. 
K.  Stevenson,  a  gentleman  well  known  in  railroad  circles,  to 
Europe,  to  negotiate  for  the  means  to  construct  her  proposed 
llailroad  to  the  Pacific.     He  brought  with  him  a  carte  blanche 
for  a  contract  for  the  construction  of  the  road,  which  would 
have  been  worth  a  hundred  million  to  the  State,  but  Secession 
has  completely  defeated  the  whole  project.     Her  other  l'oads 
in  progress  will  now  come  to  a  full  stand.     Yet  her  people 
arc  rushing  as  madly  towards  Secession  as  if  it  were*  some 
grand  carnival.     They  apparently  have  not  the  slightest  idea 
that  all  this  is  to  produce  any  change  in  their  relations  to 
capital.     They  think  they  can  destroy,  in  a  fit  of  mad  sport, 
the  fair  fabric  of  Government,  and  find  it  still  shielding  and 
protecting  them  when  they  recover  from  their  present  delerium. 


EFFECT  OF  SECESSION  ON  THE  SOUTH.        51 

When  the  results  of  Secession  are  seen,  and  they  must 
speedily  follow,  there  must  be  an  intense  reaction.  The  peo- 
ple of  Texas  have  really  no  hostility  to  the  Union,  but  have 
caught  the  wild  impulse  of  Secession,  and  while  they  are  un- 
der its  influence,  they  think  it  a  fine  thing  to  destroy  our 
Government,  supposing  they  can  just  as  easily  set  up  another. 
But  when  they  find  that  destruction  and  reconstruction  are 
not  synonyms  ;  that  for  the  next  ten  years  there  are  to  be  no 
more  railroads  built ;  no  more  capital  coming  in ;  no  more 
credits  given,  then  will  they  discover  the  mistakes  they  have 
committed,  and  gladly  retrace  their  steps  if  they  can. 

With  the  exception  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  nearly 
all  the  railroads  of  the  South  have  been  built  with  Northern 
or  European  capital.  To  construct  the  railroads  of  Virginia, 
that  State  has  issued  bonds  to  the  amount  of  more  than  $35,- 
000,000,  the  greater  part  of  which  are  held  in  the  Northern 
States  and  abroad.  Without  such  aid,  her  people  could  have 
hardly  constructed  their  first  road.  The  Missouri  railroads 
have  been  constructed  by  the  creation  of  a  debt  of  nearly 
$30,000,000.  Those  of  Tennessee  by  a  State  debt  of  some 
$16,000,000.  The  railroads  of  North  Carolina  have,  with 
two  exceptions,  been  built  with  the  proceeds  of  State  bonds. 
The  Florida  railroads  have  been  constructed  chiefly  with  the 
proceeds  of  her  internal  improvement  bonds.  The  State  of 
Louisiana  has  also  made  large  issues  to  her  railroads.  The 
means  for  building  the  Mobile  and  Ohio  Railroad,  the  great 
work  of  Alabama,  were  very  largely  drawn  from  England. 
In  fact,  nearly  the  whole  Southern  system  has  been  built  with 
the  proceeds  of  bonds  sold  at  the  North  and  in  Europe,  not 
a  dollar  of  which  could  have  been  sold  with  the  present  seces- 
sion movement  threatening.  Virginia  has  only  partially  exe- 
cuted her  system,  and  must  sell  $10,000,000  more  bonds  to 
complete  it.  North  Carolina  is  in  a  similar  predicament ;  so  is 
South  Carolina;  so  is  Louisiana;  so  is  Tennessee — and  so 
are  other  Southern  States.  If  the  works  assisted  by  these 
States  must  stop,  how  much  more  those  based  entirely  upon 
private  means  or  the  credit  of  comDanies  ?     For  every  hund- 


52  EFFECT  OF  SECESSION  ON  THE  SOUTH. 

red  dollars  that  Virginia  raises  to-day  she  pays  thirty,  in 
addition  to  interest.  If  Secession  be  such  an  excellent  remedy, 
the  material  salvation  of  the  Southern  States  and  the  step- 
ping-stone to  a  new  era  of  commercial  greatness  and  wealth, 
why  is  it  that  the  great  thermometer  of  public  opinion,  the 
price  of  their  securities,  is  so  much  depressed  ?  Why  should 
not  those  of  New  York  and  Massachusetts  share  the  same 
fate  ?  If  the  South  be  as  rich  as  is  claimed,  and  has  confidence 
in  herself,  why  does  she  suffer  her  credit  to  be  destroyed  by 
the  mere  apprehensions  for  the  future  ?  We  do  not  have  to 
go  far  back  to  find  quotations  for  Virginia  Sixes  at  115,  forty 
per  cent,  above  the  present  price  !  The  same  bonds  ought 
to  be  selling  to-day  at  110,  and  would,  but  for  Secession.  So 
with  Tennessee.  The  bonds  of  the  former  are  selling  at  74, 
the  latter  at  71.  In  other  words,  the  best  of  all  kinds  of 
Southern  property,  the  bonds  of  the  Sovereign  States,  for 
which  the  whole  means  of  all  the  people  in  them  are  in  honor 
pledged,  has  lost  more  than  25  per  cent,  of  its  value,  owing 
to  the  apprehended  political  action  of  these  States. 

Twenty-five  per  cent  is  too  great  a  loss  in  an  investment 
to  have  it  repeated.  But  great  fear  exists  that  the  excessive 
loss  already  suffered  may  yet  be  doubled  or  trebled.  If  Vir- 
ginia, secedes,  her  bonds  will  go  to  fifty  cents  on  the  dollar. 
In  the  disturbances  that  will  certainly  follow,  she  cannot  pay 
the  interest  on  them  if  she  would.  To  pay  it  in  the  best  of 
times  her  people  have  to  submit  to  taxation  which  is  exces- 
sive, but  which  must  be  increased  more  than  five-fold  to  incur 
the  inevitable  consequences  of  Secession.  Look  at  South 
Carolina.  See  what  she  is  forced  to  do.  Her  debt  is  small, 
but  if  things  there  go  on  for  a  year  as  they  have  for  three 
months  past,  she  will  let  her  interest  lie  over. 

Such  is  the  effect  of  Secession  on  the  best  investments  in 
the  South.  How  is  it  with  securities  of  a  second  class — 
shares  and  bonds  in  railroads  ?  These  are  absolutely  unsale- 
able at  almost  any  price ;  consequently  all  further  progress 
of  these  works  is  brought  to  a  dead  stand.     This  is  most  un- 


EFFECT  OF  SECESSION  ON  THE  SOUTII.  53 

fortunate,as  many  of  the  Southern  States  arc  just  in  the  full 
blow  of  their  construction.  The  roads  in  progress,  of  which 
there  are  thousands  of  miles  throughout  the  South,  will  not 
only  be  brought  to  a  dead  stand,  but  the  traffic  of  those  con- 
structed will  be  greatly  reduced.  Southern  disturbances  will 
put  an  end  to  Southern  travel.  With  the  North  converted 
into  an  enemy,  on  the  ground  of  hostility  to  Southern  institu- 
tions, the  great  mass  will  have  to  stay  at  home  to  watch  and 
defend  these  institutions.  Their  means,  instead  of  going  into 
commerce,  will  be  consumed  in  war,  or  in  preparation  for  war. 
New  industries  cannot  be  developed,  because  these  require 
quiet  and  peace.  If  the  South  can  move  so  readily  in  one 
direction,  they  may  with  equal  facility  go  in  another.  Every- 
thing permanent  must  have  slow  growth.  Secession  is  pas- 
sion, not  conviction,  and  may,  and  will,  be  speedily  turned 
against  itself.  Capital  always  withdraws  from  such  a  theatre 
as  this.  The  madness  of  the  movement  is  most  astounding. 
Take  for  example  Florida,  with  60,000  square  miles  of  terri- 
tory, and  only  87,000  white  inhabitants.  With  desperate 
exertions,  assisted  by  people  at  the  North,  she  contrived  to 
construct  a  railroad  of  160  miles  across  the  neck  of  her  pen- 
insula, with  a  fair  promise  of  being  able  to  turn  over  it  the 
trade  between  the  Eastern  States  and  New  Orleans.  The 
road  is  completed,  but  hardly  the  first  train  has  run  over  it. 
It  lies  almost  entirely  unused,  and  the  best  thing  to  be  done 
with  it  is  to  strip  up  the  rails  and  sell  them.  But  for  Seces- 
sion it  would  now  have  been  doing  a  good  business.  North- 
erners would  have  furnished  the  boats  necessary  to  the  through 
route.  The  enterprise  not  only  might  have  been  profitable, 
but  worth  millions  to  the  State,  so  much  in  need  of  improve- 
ments and  capital.  Secession  has  put  Florida  back  ten  years. 
For  what  ?  A  necessity  that  existed  no  where  but  in  the 
minds  of  her  political  masters.  The  commerce  of  great  value 
which  was  to  go  through  her  territory,  enriching  her  people, 
will  avoid  it  as  a  pestilence,  taking  the  interior  routes  protect- 
ed and  rendered  safe  by  the  loyalty  of  the  people  through 
which  they  run. 


54  SOUTHERN  FREE  TRADE. 

SOUTHERN  FREE  TRADE. 

One  of  the  glories  which  the  Southern  Confederacy  pic- 
tures to  itself  is  the  millenium  of  free  trade.  Its  ideas  upon  this 
subject  were  first  developed  by  Mr.  McDuffie  in  his  famous 
"  forty  bale"  theory.  They  took  fast  hold  of  South  Carolina, 
and  constitute  one  of  the  leading  motives  to  Secession,  under 
which  the  State  is  to  reach  the  very  acme  of  wealth  and 
power. 

One  would  suppose  that  the  Cotton  States  enjoyed  consid- 
erable freedom  of  trade  already.  All  the  markets  of  the 
world  are  open  to  them.  They  purchase  only  a  very  small 
amount  of  duty-paying  goods  in  any  quarter,  for  the  reason 
that  there  is  no  consumption  for  them  among  the  great  mass 
of  their  population  ;  the  whole  amount  directly  imported  into 
the  States  from  foreign  countries  averaging  only  from 
$15,000,000  to  $20,000,000.  A  considerable  portion  of  their 
imports  are  either  on  the  free  list  or  go  beyond  their  own 
limits.  It  is  not  probable  that  the  value  of  foreign  merchan- 
dize received  by  them  through  other  ports  exceeds  that  di- 
rectly imported.  The  negro,  who  composes  over  one-half 
of  their  population,  consumes  only  American  made  goods. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  whites. 
Three-quarters  of  their  population,  consequently,  consume 
no  foreign  merchandize  worth  speaking  of.  The  greater 
portion  of  what  the  rich  consume  also  comes  from  the 
North,  reducing  the  amount  of  foreign,  or  duty-paying  mer- 
chandize, to  a  very  small  fraction  of  the  total  consumption. 

For  at  least  nine-tenths  of  all  they  import,  the  Southern 
States  enjoy  the  most  perfect  freedom  of  trade  in  the  cheap- 
est and  best  markets  for  them  in  the  world — the  Northern 
States.  For  provisions,  clothing,  farming  utensils,  furniture, 
boots,  shoes  and  hats,  machinery,  carriages,  manufactures  ot 
wood  and  iron,  glass,  nails,  etc.,  etc.,  making  up  the  greater 
portion  of  what  they  consume,  they  can  go  nowhere  else,  un- 
less they  choose  to  pay  double  price  for  very  inferior  articles. 
In   all   these  they  fully  admit   the  superiority  of  Northern 


SOUTHERN  FREE  TRADE.  55 

manufactures  over  all  the  world.  The  Southern  States  con- 
sequently have,  unconsciously  to  themselves,  to  be  sure,  beer, 
enjoying  the  blessings  of  almost  perfect  freedom  of  trade 
since  the  formation  of  the  Federal  Government,  and  under 
the  most  favorable  circumstances  possible. 

The  only  drawback  to  this  freedom  of  trade  in  their  natural 
and  best  markets  has  been  the  slight  duties  paid  on  foreign 
merchandize — say  upon  one-tenth  of  what  they  import,  liut, 
by  way  of  off-set  to  these  duties,  they  have  protection,  a 
postal  service,  Federal  Courts  and  officials,  the  cost  of  main- 
taining all  which  considerably  exceeds  the  whole  revenue  de- 
rived from  the  Southern  States  to  the  General  Government 
from  all  sources.  In  their  new  relations  they  do  not  propose 
to  dispense  with  a  single  one  of  these  expenses.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  manifest  a  commendable  anxiety  to  have  them  all 
continued  and  maintained.  In  other  words,  the  South  actu- 
ally enjoy  almost  perfect  freedom  of  trade,  and  all  the  advan- 
tages the  Government  can  confer,  without  paying  to  it  in 
return  so  large  a  sum  as  is  expended  in  their  own  territories 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  Mail  Service,  Courts  of  Justice, 
and  the  simple  administration  of  the  Eevenue  Laws.  Never 
before  were  a  people  so  fortunately  placed,  enjoying  almost 
every  advantage  that  Government  can  confer,  with  complete 
protection  from  foreign  invasion  or  domestic  disturbance,  and 
all  for  a  less  cost  to  themselves  than  the  money  actually  dis- 
bursed on  their  own  soil. 

The  new  era  of  Free  Trade  that  the  South  propose  to  inau- 
gurate is  a  tax  on  all  they  consume  to  support  a  government 
which  will  have  a  double  duty — defence  from  foreign  aggres- 
sion, and  the  confining  within  their  own  territory  of  the  capital 
upon  which  they  depend  for  their  daily  bread.  If  Southern 
independence  be  fairly  achieved,  its  maintenance  would  have 
to  be  constantly  guaranteed  by  a  large  standing  army ;  for  it 
would  not  do  to  assume  the  continuance  of  pacific  terms  with 
the  United  States.  If  there  be  such  a  divergence  between 
the  two  as  violently  to  part  them,  this  mutual  antipathy  must 
be  greatly  intensified  after  separation.  In  the  Northern  States 


56  SOUTHERN  FREE  TRADE. 

we  are  prepared  to  make  great  sacrifices  for  the  preser- 
vation of  peace.  The  John  Browns  are  now  held  in  check 
by  ourselves.  "We  do  not  allow  such  outrages  to  occur, 
which  are  quite  as  injurious  to  our  own  interests  as  to  those 
ot  the  South.  We  are  prepared  to  live  up  to  the  compact, 
no  matter  what  it  costs  us.  How  will  it  be  when  we  consti- 
tute two  people  ?  We  shall  be  absolved  from  all  legal  obliga- 
tion to  protect  our  neighbors,  and  it  cannot  be  expected  that 
we  could,  if  we  desired,  arrest  every  expedition  of  lawless, 
infatuated  men.  The  South  must  protect  itself  against  the 
foes  to  their  institutions.  What  would  be  required  for  such 
protection  ?  They  have  an  exposed  line  of  some  6,000  miles, 
almost  every  foot  of  which  would  have  to  be  guarded  by  a 
strong  force.  Such  force  would  have  to  perform  two  duties 
— to  prevent  the  incursion  of  an  enemy,  and  the  escape  of 
slaves,  which  are  the  capital  of  the  South,  and  by  which  they 
are  now  sustained.  It  is  fearful  to  think  that  the  capital  of  a 
nation,  and  its  almost  sole  means  of  support,  and  worth,  as  it 
is  rated,  $4,000,000,000,  is  on  legs,  and  may  some  morning 
turn  up  missing.  Sensible  men  at  the  South  are  constantly 
telling  their  people  that  Secession  is  to  bring  the  Canadas  to 
their  very  borders.  Once  in  Canada  the  fugitive  is  safe,  but 
in  no  part  of  the  Union.  He  does  not,  consequently,  remain 
in  it.  With  Secession,  many  will  find  an  asylum  within 
a  mile  of  where  they  are  now  securely  held.  With  a  division 
of  the  country  into  Free  and  Slave  communities,  a  half  mil- 
lion of  soldiers  would  not  suffice  to  prevent  the  escape  of 
slaves  in  droves.  Yet  the  South  must  seek  to  prevent  their 
escape  with  all  the  force  they  can  command. 

The  South,  therefore,  must  have  an  immense  standing  army, 
as  a  means  of  defence  against  foreign  aggression,  and  to  act 
as  a  local  police — one-half  of  the  population  being  set  to  watch 
the  other.  This  force  must  be  sufficient  to  repel  any  that 
could  be  brought  against  it,  and  as  the  United  States  would, 
after  Secession,  be  a  first  rate  military  power,  the  seceding 
States  must  assume  to  be,  no  matter  what  such  assumptions 
might  cost. 


SOUTHERN  FREE  TRADE.  57 

It  is  also  necessary  to  their  existence  that  the  South  com- 
mand the  sea.  All  their  products  float  upon  it,  and  a  large 
proportion  of  what  they  consume.  To  leave  the  highway  for 
their  products  in  the  bands  of  the  enemy  would  be  quietly  to 
resign  themselves  to  annihilation.  The  United  States  have  :i 
powerful  naval  force,  and  in  a  commercial  marine,  equal  in 
tonnage  to  that  of  Great  Britain,  and  in  the  aptitudes  of  the 
people  are  capable  of  being  a  first  class  power  on  the  ocean. 
The  Southern  States  have  neither  ships  nor  sailors,  and  never 
can  have  either  except  by  purchase.  These  things  are  not  indi- 
genous in  their  soil,  and  what  is  worse,  whatever  was  purchas- 
ed would  have  to  be  renewed  every  year  or  two,  from  the 
destructive  effect  of  their  climate  on  both  men  and  materials. 

How  much  are  all  these  things  to  cost  ?  The  peace  estab- 
lishment of  the  United  States,  which  does  not  contemplate 
the  possibility  of  foreign  aggression,  comes  up  to  some 
$70,000,000  annually.  Can  the  Southern  Confederated  States 
get  along  with  less  ?  They  have  aspirations  for  vast  foreign 
conquest.  They  must  be  able  to  match  the  overshadowing 
power  of  the  North  both  upon  sea  and  land.  They  must  de- 
fend themselves  from  servile  insurrections.  Can  all  this  be 
done  for  $50,000,000  annually  ?  If  so,  how  is  this  sum  to  be 
raised  ?  It  matters  not  much  how  to  the  Cotton  States,  as 
they  have  no  manufacturing  industries  to  protect.  If  by  im- 
port duties,  as  now  seems  to  be  contemplated,  then  $50,- 
000,000  are  to  be  paid  in  the  place  of  $5,000,000  at  the  pre- 
sent time,  and  in  precisely  the  same  way.  To  inaugurate  the 
principles  of  Free  Trade  the  South  will  increase  the  taxes 
they  are  now  paying  ten-fold  ! 

But  a  considerable  portion  of  the  imports  of  the  South  are 
food.  Will  the  consumer  consent  to  pay  a  heavy  tax  upon 
all  he  eats  ?  upon  the  tea  and  coffee  he  drinks  ?  upon  the 
farming  utensils  he  uses  ?  in  fact,  upon  anything  that  sup- 
ports life,  administers  to  his  comforts,  and  assists  his  indus- 
try? And  for  what  is  he  called  upon  to  make  such  tremen- 
dous sacrifices  ?  To  vindicate  slavery.  But  no  one  proposes  to 
touch  the  institution  with  the  weight  of  a  finger. 


58 


THE  LESSON  OF  THE  CENSUS. 


THE  LESSON  OF  THE  CENSUS. 


The  different  premises  from  which  the  North  and  South 
started  necessarily  lead  to  different  results.  At  the  enumera- 
tion following  immediately  upon  the  formation  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, our  population  was  equally  divided  between  the  two 
sections ;  that  of  the  Northern  States  being  1,968,455  ;  of 
the  Southern  1,961,372.  Their  respective  areas  were  166,358 
square  miles  for  the  Northern  States,  and  296,345  for  the 
Southern.  At  the  last  enumeration  the  area  of  the  Northern 
States  had  increased  to  847,816  miles ;  of  the  Southern  to 
888,310.  Their  population  had  advanced  to  19,139,194,  or 
at  the  rate  of  about  875  per  cent,  for  the  Northern  States 
and  Territories,  and  to  12,509,644,  or  about  542  per  cent,  for 
the  Southern. 

The  rate  of  this  increase,  from  decade  to  decade,  will  be 
seen  in  the  following  table  : 


DECADES. 

POPULATION 
NORTHERN  STATES. 

POPULATION 
SOUTHERN  STATES. 

EXCESS   IN 
NORTHERN  STATES. 

1790 

1830 

1860 

1,968,455 
2,683,652 
3,738,065 
5,152,292 
7,018,627 
9,728,922 
13,527,220 
19,139,194 

1,961,372 
2,621,296 
3,501,749 
4,485,839 
5,848,293 
7,334,431 
9,654,656 
12,509,644 

7,083 

62,356 
236,316 
666,453 
1,170,334 
2,394,491 
3,872,564 
6,629,550 

Never  was  a  race  commenced  with  parties  more  equally 
matched.  They  were  equal  in  n  umbers.  Jn  resources  the 
Southern  States  appeared  to  have  the  advantage.  As  their 
people  expanded,  further  room  was  secured  by  the  purchase 
of  Louisiana  and  Florida.  For  the  first  thirty  years  the  two 
sections  were  neck  and  neck,  when  the  North,  taught  by  the 
war  of  1812,  began  to  turn  their  attention  to  manufacturing 
and  to  the  employment  ol  those  agencies  upon  which  the 
creation  of  wealth,  and  at  the  same  time  of  population,  de- 
pends. So  long  as  both  sections  devoted  themselves  to  agri- 
culture, their  increase  was  very  nearly  equal.  But  the  North, 
not  content  with  this  alone,  took  a  new  line  of  industry  in 


THE  LESSON  OF  THE  CENSUS.  59 

which  the  South  could  not  follow,  because  they  would  not 
train  their  workmen  to  anything  but  the  rudest  kind  of  labor. 
They  were  consequently  distanced  long  ago.  Within  the  last 
decade  the  North  increased  at  the  rate  of  41  per  cent,  on  a 
population  of  13,527,220 ;  the  South  29  per  cent,  on  a  popu- 
lation of  9,654,656.  At  the  same  ratio  of  increase  the  North, 
in  1870,  will  have  26,976,273  inhabitants ;  the  South  16,537,- 
440.  In  1880  the  North  will  have  38,050,744 ;  the  South 
21,333,297.  In  one  hundred  years  from  the  first  enumeration 
the  North  will  have  53,661,549,  and  the  South  27,519,953. 
In  other  words,  in  the  first  one  hundred  years  from  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Government,  the  North,  by  the  superiority 
of  its  industry,  will  have  increased  its  population  at  a  rate 
equaling  twice  that  of  the  Southern  States. 

With  numbers  go  wealth  and  power;  with  twice  the  popu- 
lation of  the  South,  the  North  will  be  five  times  as  rich  and 
strong.     The  South  see  this  colossal  development,  and  try  to 
escape  by  dissolving  the  Union— in  other  words,  by  provok- 
ing its  hostility  instead  of  availing  themselves  of  its  strength  ; 
and  by  taking  a  course  that  must  increase  instead  of  remov- 
ing the  disparity.   The  North  is  not  to  blame  for  its  strength, 
but  they  well  know  that  as  all  this  has  been  gained  by  arts 
of  peace,  a  great  deal  of  it  may  be  lost  by  war.     Hence  the 
striking  contrast  between  the  conduct  of  the  two  sections. 
In  the  South  it  is  war,  war  !     The  whole  country,  if  possible, 
is  to  be  converted  into  a  military  camp.     In  the  North  we  are 
seeking  to  conserve  our  material  interests,  to  maintain  uninter- 
rupted   the    channels  of    internal   communication,   to  keep 
our  laborers  employed,  and  maintain  unchecked  our  marvel- 
ous progress.     In  case  of  collision  indifferent  parties  see  but 
one  issue— the   overwhelming  triumph  of  the  North.     We 
have  authority  for  such  a  conclusion  in  our  vast  superiority  in 
whatever  can  give  strength.    We  hold  uninterupted  command 
of  the  sea,  and  in  a  year's  time  could,  if  we  chose,  without 
any  other  sacrifice  than  the  loss  of  trade,  reduce  every  offend- 
ing State  to  beggary.     Yet  we  are  as  loath  to  assume  the 
offensive  as  if  we  were  the  weakest  people  in  the  world.  We 


g()  THE  LESSON  OF  THE  CENSUS. 

cannot  get  rid  of  the  idea  that  the  Southern  people  are  still 
brethren,  whose  blood  we  must  not  shed.  We  are  unconscious 
of  offence,  and  consequently  cherish  no  sentiments  of  hostility 
or  revenge.  We  extend  the  same  welcome  to  Southern  peo- 
ple that  we  ever  did.  We  will  not  allow  that  the  repeated 
acts  of  official  and  individual  treachery  express  the  prevail- 
ing sentiment  at  the  South.  We  forbear,  conscious  of  our 
rectitude  and  our  strength.  But,  more  than  all,  we  shrink 
from  the  thought  of  destroying,  with  our  own  hands,  the  fair 
fabric  we  had  erected,  so  long  the  hope  for  mankind,  founded 
upon  the  idea  that  left  free,  the  better  part  of  man's  nature 
would  mould  his  institutions  and  guide  his  conduct.  We 
have  at  the  North,  at  least,  felt  our  mission  to  be  the  most 
sacred  that  could  be  committed  to  a  people.  We  consequently 
tolerate  and  excuse  many  things  to  preserve  the  great  princi- 
ple. The  most  degraded  and  ignorant  foreigner  as  soon,  al- 
most, as  he  lands  on  our  shores,  we  declare  to  be  a  man,  and 
receive  him  into  full  citizenship.  We  respect  his  manhood, 
not  his  accidents.  By  making  war  upon  our  brother, 
shall  we  proclaim  to  the  world  the  failure  of  our  grand  ex- 
periment, and  confess  that  brute  force  must  still  continue  to 
mark  the  relations  between  man  and  man,  and  government 
and  subject  ? 

It  is  natural  that  the  South  should  view  with  apprehension 
the  rapidly  expanding  power  of  the  North,  which  they  can  no 
longer  hope  to  rival.  But  they  entirely  misinterpret  the  sen- 
timent of  their  people,  who,  being  devoted  to  the  arts  of 
peace,  dread  everything  like  sudden  change.  It  is  natural 
that  the  North  should  have  rallied  almost  unanimously  to  put 
down  the  administration  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  as  profligate  and 
corrupt  as  any  in  history.  Had  the  people  been  no  better, 
society  itself  must  have  come  to  an  end.  But  that  the  change 
did  not  mean  a  hostile  interference  with  Southern  institutions 
is  fully  proved  by  the  entire  inaction  of  the  North,  now  that 
power  is  fully  secured.  With  the  subject  of  slavery  the 
North  do  not  desire  to  become  implicated.  They  know  not 
how  to  deal  with  it  if  they  desired.     They  prefer  to  ignore 


THE  LESSON  OF  THE  CENSUS. 


61 


the  whole  matter.  At  the  same  time  we  cannot  apostrophise 
the  institution  as  we  do  those  of  freedom,  because  we  trace 
to  the  latter  our  own  strength,  and  to  the  former  the  weak- 
ness of  the  South.  In  idea  we  estimate  values  by  results, 
and  consequently  speak  of  freedom  as  better  than  slavery. 

Notwithstanding  the  disparity,  the  South  is  safe  only  in 
the  Union.  In  it  the  changes  that  take  place  must  be  natural, 
having  all  the  health  and  appearance  of  growth.  In  this  way 
any  step  that  helps  to  make  Virginia  a  Free  State  is  mutually 
beneficial  to  North  and  South.  The  latter  wants  more  labor  ; 
the  former  more  room.  When  Virginia  is  free,  similar  influ- 
ences will  begin  to  work  in  North  Carolina,  but  no  faster  than 
they  promote  the  general  good.  The  whole  thing  will  be  left 
to  popular  election.  When  a  person  in  Virginia  fancies  he 
can  make  more  money  by  the  use  of  free  labor  than  slave,  or 
steam  than  muscular  power,  he  will  do  so,  sending  off  his 
slaves  and  bring  five  times,  probably,  as  many  free  people  to 
fill  their  place.  Virginia  has  such  vast  resources  that  can 
onlv  be  properly  developed  by  free  labor,  that  the  substitution 
of  one  for  the  other  will  soon  become  rapid.  Are  not  all  to 
be  benefited  by  such  changes  ?  If  so,  why  not  await  the  ac- 
tion of  time,  which  is  always  beneficent,  instead  of  resorting 
to  violence,  which  is  always  destruction. 

Population  increases  in  ratio  to  the  means  provided  for 
its  support — in  other  words,  in  ratio  to  intelligence.  The 
blacks,  South,  consequently,  increase  more  slowly  than  the 
whites. 

The  ratio  of  this  increase  will  be  seen  in  the  following 
statement : 


YEARS. 
1790-. 

1800- • 
1810-. 
1820-. 
1830-  < 
1840-  - 
1850- • 
I860-. 


TOTAL    NUMBER   OF 

INCREASE    IN    EACH 

RATE     OF    IN- 

SLAVI  S. 

TEN  YEARS. 

CREASE. 

697,897 

893,041 

195,144 

27.9 

1,191,364 

298,323 

33.4 

1,538,038 

346  674 

29.0 

2,009,043 

471,005 

30.6 

2,467,455 

478,412 

23.8 

3,200,364 

716,858 

28  8 

3,999,313 

798949 

25.0 

62 


THE  LESSON  OF  THE  CENSUS. 


The  rate  of  increase  of  whites  in  the  Slaveholdinfj  States 
and  Territories  since  the  formation  of  the  Government  has 
been  as  follows  : 


1790 
1800 
1310 
1820 
1830 
1840 
1850 
1860 


TOTAL    NUMBER. 


1,271,488 

1,702,980 
2,208,785 
2,831,560 
3,662,606 
4,809,097 
6,412,605 
8,435,020 


INCREASE  EACH  TEN 
YEARS. 


431,492 

505,805 

622,775 

831,046 

1,146,491 

1,603,508 

2,022,415 


RATE     OP    IN- 
CREASE. 


33.9 

29.7 
28.2 
29.3 
26.5 
34.2 
31.3 


The  ratio  of  increase  in  the  Free  States  and  Territories 
has  been  as  follows : 


1790 
1800 
1810 
1820 
1830 
1840 
1850 
1860 


TOTAL  NUMBER. 


1,968,455 
2,683,652 
3,738,065 
5,152,292 
7,018,627 
9,728,922 
13,527,220 
19,139,194 


INCREASE  EACH  TEN 
YEARS. 


715,197 
1,054,413 
1,414,227 
1,866,335 
2,710,295 
3,798  298 
5,61 1^974 


PER    CENTAGE 
INCREASE. 


36.8 

40.4 
37.7 
36.6 
39.1 
39.4 
41.0 


This  ratio  of  increase  in  favor  of  the  North  is  constantly- 
becoming  greater  from  the  gradual  movement  of  the  black 
population  southward.  Delaware  is  virtually  a  Free  State. 
Missouri  having  less  than  ten  per  cent,  of  her  population 
slaves,  must  also  rank  in  a  very  few  years  with  the  Free 
States.  One  half  of  Virginia,  an  area  of  30,000  square  miles, 
contains  only  22,000  slaves.  A  third  of  Kentucky  only  about 
7,000.  Three-eights  of  Tennessee  only  about  25,000.  In  all 
these  slaves  are  decreasing  instead  of  increasing,  and  their 
places  must  soon  be  taken  by  a  population  entirely  free. 

On  the  succeeding  pages  we  have  given  the  results  of  the 
Census  of  1860,  as  far  as  they  have  been  published,  compared 
with  the  Census  of  1840  and  1850. 


POPULATION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


63 


Statement  showing  the  Area  of  the  several  States  and  Territories,  with 
the  number  of  Inhabitants  in  each  in  1840,  1850  and  1860  : 


STATES  AND  TE  RKITORIES. 


Free  States. 

Maine 

New  Hampshire  •• 

Vermont 

Massachusetts 

Rhode  Island 

Connecticut. 

New  York 

New  Jersey 

Pennsylvania 

Ohio 

Indiana 

Michigan 

Illinois 

Wisconsin 

Iowa 

Minnesota 

Oregon 

California 

Kansas 


Total  Free  States- 
Slave  States. 

Delaware 

Maryland 

Virginia 

North  Carolina 

South  Carolina-  •  •   • 

Georgia 

Florida 

Alabama 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 

Texas 

Arkansas 

Missouri 

Kentucky 

Tennessee 


Total  Slave  States- 


888,310 
Territories. 
Nebraska 293,438 


Dakotah-  •  •  • 
Washington- 

Utah 

New  Mexico- 
Indian 


Total  Territories- 

District  of 

Columbia 


Area  in  Sq 
Miles. 


31 

9 

10 

7 

1 

4 
47 
8. 
46 
39 
33 
56 
55 
53 
55 
95 
102 
188 
!25 


766 
280 
212 
600 
306 
674 
000 
320 
000 
964 
809 
451 
410 
924 
045 
274 
S00 
981 
283 


847,816 


2 
11 
61. 
50. 

29; 

58. 
59! 
50, 
47, 
41 
274 
52 
67 
37 
45 


120 
124 
352 
704 
785 
000 
268 
722 
156 
255 
366 
199 
,380 
,660 
600 


NUMBER  OF    INHABITANTS. 


1840. 


501,703 

284.574 

291,948 

737,699 

103,830 

309,978 

2,429,921 

373,306 

1,724,033 

1,519,467 

685,866 

212,267 

476,183 

30,945 

43,112 


Grand  total  of  United  States  3,024,535 


60,000 
223,022 
2G9.170 
256,309 

71,127 


1,163,066 
60 


9,728,922 

78.085 
470,019 
1,239,797 
753,419 
594,398 
691,392 

54,477 
590,756 
375.651 
352,411 

97,574 
393,702 

779,829 
829,210 

7,290,719 


1850. 


583,169 

317,976 

314,120 

994,514 

147,545 

370,792 

3,097,394 

489,555 

2,311,786 

1,980,329 

988,416 

397,654 

851,470 

305,391 

192,214 

6,077 

13,294 

92,597 


13,454,293 

91,532 
583,034 

1,421,661 
869,039 
668,507 
906,185 
87,445 
771,623 
606,526 
517,762 
212,592 
209,897 
682,044 
982,405 

1,002,717 


9  612,969 


11,380 
61,547 


43,712 
17,063,353 


72,927 
51,687 


1660. 


619,958 

327,072 

315,827 

1,231,494 

174,621 

460.670 

3,851  561 

676,084 

2,916,018 

2.377,917 

1,350,902 

754,291 

1,691,238 

768,485 

682.002 

172,793 

52,566 

364,770 

143,645 


23,191,876 


18,951,814 

112,353 

731,965 

1,593,199 

1,008,342 

715,371 

1,082,757 

154,694 

955,917 

887,158 

666,431 

600,955 

440,775 

1,201,209 

1,145,567 

1,146,640 


12,434,373 

28,893 
4,839 
11,624 
60,000 
92,024 


187,380 

75,321 

31,64S,898 


64 


POPULATION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


Statement  showing  the  Absolute  Increase  of  Population  of  each  State  and 
Territory  for  the  last  three  decades,  with  the  per  cent,  of  such  increase. 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 


Free  States. 

Maine 

New  Hampshire  ••  •  • 

Vermont 

Massachusetts 

Rhode  Island- 

Connecticut. 

New  York 

New  Jersey 

Pennsylvania 

Ohio 

Indiana 

Michigan 

Illinois 

Wisconsin 

Iowa 

Minnesota 

Oregon 

California 

Kansas 

Total  Free  States- 
Slave  States. 

Delaware 

Maryland 

Virginia 

North  Carolina 

South  Carolina 

Georgia 

Florida 

Alabama 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 

Texas 

Arkansas 

Missouri 

Kentucky 

Tennessee 

Total  Slave  States 
Territories. 

Nebraska 

Dakotah 

AVashington 

Utah 

New  Mexico 

Indian 

Total  Territories-  • 
District  of 
Columbia 

Gran!  total 


DECENNIAL     INCREASE. 


Absolute. 


1830-40.  1840-50.  1850-60 


102,338 

15,246 

11,296 

127,291 

11,631 

12,303 

510,313 

52,483 

375,800 

581,564 

342,835 

180,628 

318,738 

30,945 

43,112 


2,716,523 

1,337 

22,979 

28,392 

15,432 

13,213 

174,569 

19,747 

281,229 

239,030 

136,672 

67,186 
243,247 

91,911 
147,306 


1,482,251 


3,878 
4,202,651 


81,376 

33,402 

22,172 

256,815 

38,715 

60,8 

668,4 

116249 

587.753 

460;862 

302,550 

185,387 

375,287 

274,446 

149,102 

6,077 

13,294 

92,597 


3,725,371 

13,447 
113,015 

181,664 
115,620 

74,109 
214,793 

32,968 
180,867 
230,875 
165,351 
212,592 
112,323 
298,342 
202,577 
173,507 


2,322,250 


36,789 

9,096 

1,707 

336,980 

27,076 

89,878 
754,167 
186,529 
604,232 
397,588 
362,386 
356,637 
839,768 
463,094 
489,788 
166,716 

39,272 
292,173 
143,645 


Per  Centage. 


30-'40'40-'50'50-'60 


5,497,521 

20,821 
148,931 
171,538 
139,303 

46,864 
176,612 

58,249 
184,294 
280,632 
148,669 
388,363 
230,878 
519,165 
163,162 
143,923 


2,821,404 

28,893 
4,839 
11,624 
38,620 
30,477 


7,975 

6.028,523 


114,453 

23,634 

8,457,012 


25  62 

5.66 

4.02 

20  85 

11.97 

4.13 

26.60 

16.35 

27.87 

62.01 

99.94 

570.90 

202.44 


38.65 

1.74 

5.14 

2.34 

2.09 

2.27 

33.78 

56.86 

90.86 

174.96 

63.35 

221.09 

173  18 

13.36 

24.60 


25.52 


1622 
11.74 
7.59 
34.81 
35.57 
19  62 
27  52 
31.14 
34.09 
30.33 
44.11 
87.34 
78.81 
886.88 
345.85 


6.31 

2.86 

0.54 

23.99 

18.35 

24.23 

24.35 

38.10 

26.13 

20.08 

36.57 

89.66 

98.62 

15168 

254.81 

274.34 

294.73 

151.90 


38.29 

17.22 

24.04 
14.67 
15.35 
12,47 
31.07 
60.5'. 
30.62 
6146 
46.92 

115  12 

77.75 
25.98 
20.92 


31.95 


9.74 


18  25 


32  67     35  8: 


40.88 

22.74 
25  44 
12.05 
16.03 
6.01 
19.49 
66.61 
23.89 
46.31 
28.71 
182.63 
109.94 
76.12 
16.62 
14.34 


2935 


239.37 

49.52 


156.79 
45  45 


36  46 


POPULATION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


65 


Statement  shcnoing  the  per  centage  of  Slaves  in  each  State,  the  Population 
to  the  square  mile,  and  the  number  of  Representatives  for  each. 


BTATES 

AND 

TERRITORIES. 


Free  States. 

Maine 

New  Hampshire 

Vermont 

Massachusetts  •• 
Rhode  Island-  • 
Connecticut.  •  •  • 

Now  York 

New  Jersey-  •  •• 
Pennsylvania-  • 

Ohio 

Indiana 

Michigan 

Illinois 

Wisconsin 

Iowa 

Minnesota 

Oregon 

California 

Kansas 

Total  Free  States 
Slave  States 

Delaware 

Maryland 

Virginia 

North  Carolina- 
South  Carolina- 
Georgia 

Florida 

Alabama 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 

Texas 

Arkansas 

Missouri 

Kentucky 

Tennessee 

Total  Slave  States 
Territories. 

Nebraska 

Dakotah 

Washington-  •  • 

Utah 

New  Mexico  •  • 
Indian 

Total  Territories 
District  of 
Columbia 


Orand  total  ■ 


PER  CENT.  OF  SLAVES 
TO  POPULATION. 


1840. 


0.18 
001 


0  07 


3,34 
19.11 
36.22 
32.63 
55.02 
40.64 
47.21 
42.92 
5189 
47.81 

42.95 
15.13 
23.35 
22.03 


34.03 


10.71 
14.58 


1850. 


0.05 


2.50 
15.50 
33.24 
3320 
57.59 
4213 
44.96 
4443 
51.07 
47.23 
27.33 
44.52 
12.84 
21.39 
23.81 


33.29 


001 


7.12 

1381 


I860 


1.66 
11.67 
31  12 
32.56 
5692 
43.17 
43.79 
45.55 
54  06 
4684 
30.94 
24.74 

9.62 
19.48 
2503 


32.16 


5.83 
12  64 


RATIO  OF  POPULATION 
TO  SQUARE   MILE. 


1840.1  1650. 


15.80 

30  67 

2859 

94.58 

83.33 

66.32 

51.68 

44.67 

37.48 

38.02 

20  28 

3.77 

859 

0.57 

0.78 


11.47 

36.83 

42.25 

20.21 

14  86 

20  23 

11.65 

0  92 

11.93 

797 

8.54 

1.87 

5.69 

20.70 

18.18 

8.21 


18.36 

34.26 

30.92 

127  50 

112  97 

79.33 

65.90 

58  64 

50  26 

49.55 

29  24 

7.07 

15.37 

5.66 

3 

0.06 

0.13 

0.49 


I860. 


15  S7 

43.18 
52.4 1 
23.17 
17  14 
22.75 
15.62 
1.48 
15  21 
12.86 
12,55 
0.7S 
4.02 
10  12 
26.07 
21.99 

10.82 


0.04 
0.24 


0.05 
86145 


5.64!      7.67 


19.52 

35  22 

30  92 

170  70 

133.71 

98.86 

81.98, 

81.27i 

63.39 

59.45 

39.89 

13.39 

30.53 

14  26 

12.39 

1.81 

052 

204 

1.14 

22.34 

52.99 
61.29 
25  92 
21.39 
24.31 
18  68 
2  48 
18.78 
1S.58 
1613 
219 
8.44 
17.82 
30.39 
25.19 


1391 

0  10 
0.08 
0.05 
0.19 
0.36 


0.16 

1255.42 

10  46| 


represn'tives 
in  congress. 


1840  1850  1860 


Bo 


144 

1 
6 
13 
8 
6 
8 
1 
7 
5 
4 
2 
2 
7 

10 
10 


90 


5 
3 
2 
10 
1 
4 

30 

5 

23 

19 

11 

6 

13 

6 

5 

1 

1 

3 

1 

149 

1 
6 
11 
7 
4 
7 
1 
6 
5 

4 

4 
3 
9 


84 


223   234    233 


66  THE  GEOGRAPHICAL  QUESTION  OF  SECESSION. 

THE  GEOGRAPHICAL  QUESTION  OF  SECESSION. 

The  attempt  of  the  Cotton  States  to  divide  the  country 
upon  the  line  between  free  and  slaveholding  territory,  has 
signally  failed.  In  large  portions  of  every  State  in  which 
slaves  are  held,  they  are  not  the  paramount  interest.  In  such 
the  conviction  is  universal  that  they  must,  ere  long,  give  way 
to  labor  better  adapted  to  their  soil  and  climate,  and  to  the 
development  of  their  resources.  In  all  such  districts,  conse- 
quently, we  find  loyalty  to  government,  and  sympathy  with 
the  North. 

This  want  of  homogeneousness  has  already  divided  the 
people  of  the  Southern  States  into  two  hostile  camps.  It  is 
the  South  seceding  from  the  South,  showing  a  confederacy 
co-extensive  with  territory  in  which  slaves  are  held  to  be  im- 
possible. In  more  than  one-half  of  this  territory,  the  staple, 
for  the  cultivation  of  which  slave  labor  is  considered  neces- 
sary, cannot  be  grown.  Where  they  cannot,  its  industries  are 
identical  with  those  of  'the  Northern  States.  It  has  the 
climate  of  the  North,  from  its  great  elevation  above  the  sea. 
Upon  it  the  slave  comprises  only  a  small  fraction  of  the  popu- 
lation. If  we  start  from  the  southwest  corner  of  Maryland, 
and  follow,  to  the  southern  boundary  of  Virginia,  the  ridge 
separating  the  waters  flowing  into  the  Ohio  from  those  flow- 
ing into  the  Atlantic,  we  shall  divide  the  State  into  nearly 
equal  parts.  Continued  southward  in  the  same  general 
direction,  we  include  mountainous  portions  of  North  Carolina 
and  Georgia,  and  following  the  west  in  direction  of  the  Alle- 
ghany range,  the  northern  portion  of  Alabama.  The  western 
boundary  of  this  territory  would  include  one-third  of  Ken- 
tucky and  three-eighths  of  Tennessee,  the  whole  embracing 
about  75,000  square  miles,  forming  a  compact  and  contiguous 
mass.  It  has  a  width,  from  east  to  west,  of  over  two  hund- 
dred  miles,  and  a  length,  from  north  to  south,  of  over  four 
hundred,  and  embraces  the  whole  elevated  plain  from 
which  the  Alleghenies  rise.  It  presents  similar  topographi- 
cal and  climatic  features  for  its  entire  extent. 


THE  GEOGRAPHICAL  QUESTION  OF  SECESSION. 


67 


The  population  of  this  territory,  by  counties,  free  and  slave, 
according  to  the  census  of  1850  was  as  follows : 

VIRGINIA. 


COUNTIES. 

Barbour- •  •< 

Boone ■ 

Braxton- •  •■ 
Brooke- •  •  • 

Cabell 

Carroll-  •  ■  • 
Dodridge.-  ■  • 

Fayette 

Floyd. 

Giles 

Gilmer 

Grayson 

Greenbrier- ■ 
Hancock-  ••  • 
Harrison 
Jackson 
Kahnawa  •  • 

Lee 

Lewis 

Logan 

Marion. 

Marshall-   •  ■ 

Mason 

Mercer. 

Monongalia  • 


TOTAL 
POPULATION 


NUMBER   OF 
SLAVES 


9,005 

113 

3,237 

183 

4,212 

89 

5,054 

31 

6,299 

389 

5.409 

154 

2,750 

32 

3,955 

156 

6,458 

443 

6,570 

657 

3,475 

72 

6,677 

499 

10,022 

1,317 

4,050 

3 

11,728 

488 

6,544 

53 

15,353 

3,140 

10,267 

787 

10,131 

368 

3,620 

87 

10,552 

94 

10,138 

49 

7,539 

647 

4,222 

177 

12,387 

176 

COUNTIES. 

TOTAL 
POPULATION 

NUMBER  OF 
SLAVES. 

Nicholas-  ••  • 

Pocahontas  • 
Preston 

Putnam--    •• 
Raleigh 
Randolph-  •• 

Scott 

Taylor 

Tazwell 

!  Tyler. 

Washington- 

Wetzell.  ••  •• 

Wyoming-  •• 
Wythe 

Total 

10,204 
3,963 

18,066 
3,598 

11,708 
5,118 
5,338 
1,765 
5,243 
3,902 

11,919 
9,829 
8,162 
5,367 
9,942 
5,498 

14,612 
4,760 
4,284 
3,353 
9,450 
1,645 

12,024 

1,061 

73 

164 

267 

87 

1,471 

632 

23 

201 

16 

982 

473 

1,064 

168 

1,060 

38 

2,131 

189 

17 

32 

373 

61 

2,185 

339,404 

22,912 

TENNESSEE. 


Anderson  • 
Bledsoe-  •  • 
Blount  •  ■  • 
Bradley  •  • 
Campbell  • 
Carter-  •  •  • 
Clarborne' 
Cooke 
Fentress  ■  ■ 
Grainger-  < 
Greene  ••  ■ 
Hamilton  • 
Hancock-  ■ 
Hawkins-  ■ 
Jackson  •  • 
Jefferson- 
Johnson.-  • 
Knox 


TOTAL 
POPULATION. 


6,938 

5,959 

12,424 

12,259 

6,068 

6,296 

9,369 

8,310 

4,464 

12,370 

17,824 

10,075 

5,660 

13,371 

15,673 

13,204 

3,705 

18,807 


NUMBER  OF 
SLAVKS. 


506 

827 

1,084 

744 

918 

353 

660 

719 

148 

1.035 

1,093 

672 

202 

1,690 

1,558 

1,628 

206 

2,193 


COUNTIES. 

TOTAL 
POPULATION. 

NUMBER  OF 
SLAVES. 

McMinn 

Overton 

Polk 

|Khea 

Scott 

Sullivan  <  •  •• 

Van  Buren.- 
Washington  • 
White 

13,906 

6,314 
4,879 

11,874 
3,430 

11,211 
6,339 
4,415 

12,185 
1,905 
6,920 

11,742 
2,674 

13,861 

11,444 

1,564 
551 
395 

1,188 
101 

1,065 
400 
436 

1,544 

37 

403 

1,004 
175 
930 

1,214 

306,874 

27,243 

68 


THE  GEOGRAPHICAL  QUESTION  OF  SECESSION 


KENTUCKY. 


COUNTIES. 

TOTAL 
POPULATION. 

NUMBER  OF 
SLAVES. 

COUNTIES. 

TOTAL 
POPULATION. 

NUMBER  OP 
SLAVES. 

Breathitt-  ■• 
Clay 

Greenup- •  •• 
Johnson 

Lawrence  ••  • 

3,785 
6,241 
5,421 
4,889 
5  785 
5,714 
9,654 
4,263 
3,873 
7,050 
4,445 
6,281 

170 

257 
515 
262 
411 
149 
606 
123 
30 
612 
192 
137 

Pike 

Rockcastle  •  • 
Whitley. 

2,512 

7,202 
7,620 
3,774 
3,092 
5,365 
14,195 
4,697 
8,692 
7,447 

62 

322 
187 
136 
117 

98 

1,307 

375 

830 

201 

132,002 

7,099 

NORTH  CAROLINA. 


COUNTIES. 

TOTAL 
POPULATION. 

NUMBER  OF 
SLAVES. 

Alexander  ■• 

Buncombe  •• 

Caldwell 

Catawba-  •  •  • 
Cherokee.  ••  • 
Cleveland  ••  • 
Hey  wood.  ••  • 

5,220 
8,777 
7,772 

13,425 
6,317 
8,862 
6,838 

10,396 
7,074 

543 

595 
2,132 
1,717 
1,203 
1,569 

337 
1,747 

413 

TOTAL 

NUMBER  OF 

POPULATION. 
6,853 

SLAVES. 

924 

6,246 

1,262 

6.389 

549 

13,550 

2,905 

3,400 

129 

12,099 

1,142 

8,205 

346 

131,023 

17,518 

GEORGIA 


COUNTIES. 

TOTAL 
POPULATION. 

NUMBER  OF 
SLAVES. 

3,008 
1,680 
1,157 
2,999 
1,027 
200 
828 
1,218 

COUNTIES. 

TOTAL 
POPULATION. 

NUMBER    OF 
SLAVES. 

Chatoga-  ••  • 
Cherokee -.-• 

Floyd 

Forsythe.  •  •  • 

Habersham.- 

13,300 

6,815 
12,800 
8,205 
8,550 
8,440 
5,984 
8,895 

Lumpkin  ••  • 
Paulding-   •  • 

8,955 

14,433 

7,039 

2,448 

13,109 

939 

1,930 

1,377 

110 

1,664 

118,973 

18,137 

ALABAMA. 


COUNTIES. 


Blount 

Cherokee- 
Hancock-  • 
Lawrence- 
Marion.-  •  • 
Marshall-  - 


TOTAL 

NUMBER  OF 

POPULATION. 

SLAVES. 

7,367 

426 

1 3,884 

1,691 

1,542 

62 

14,088 

2,292 

7,833 

908 

8,846 

868 

COUNTIES. 

TOTAL 
POPULATION. 

NUMBER  OF 
SLAVES. 

Randolph-  •  • 
St.  Clair-  ••- 
Walker 

11,584 
6,829 
5,124 

1,321 

266 
936 

77,097 

8,770 

THE  GEOGRAPHICAL  QUESTION  OF  SECESSION.  (39 

The  whole  territory  described,  which  forms  a  compact  and 
contiguous  body,  contained,  in  1850,  a  population  of  1,105,- 
313,  of  whom  101,079,  or  9  per  cent,  only,  were  slaves.  "We 
have  not  the  returns,  by  counties,  for  I860,  but  therate  of  in- 
crease of  the  white  population  for  the  past  ten  years  must 
have  been  equal  to  20  per  cent.,  while  that  of  slaves  must 
have  remained  very  nearly  stationary.  At  the  present  mo- 
ment this  great  district  must  have  a  population  of  1,300,000, 
of  whom  not  over  eight  per  cent ,  or  104,000,  are  slaves. 
It  has  an  excellent  climate,  probably  the  best  in  the  United 
States.  Much  of  it  is  elevated  from  2,000  to  3,000  feet  above 
the  sea,  and  is  admirably  adapted  to  grazing  and  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  grains,  while  beneath  the  soil  is  the  greatest  pro- 
fusion of  the  most  valuable  minerals.  Upon  no  portion  of  it 
can  cotton  be  successfully  cultivated,  nor  the  slaves  profitably 
employed.  Though  at  present  thinly  settled,  it  is  capable  of 
a  much  denser  population  than  any  portions  of  the  States  of 
which  it  forms  a  part,  and  is  only  wanting  in  means  of  inter- 
communication, which  are  now  being  supplied,  to  render  it 
the  most  actractive  field  for  emigration  and  industry  in  the 
United  States.  Its  people,  in  their  habits,  ideas  and  interests, 
as  well  as  in  the  physical  features  of  their  country,  present 
contrasts  to  the  cotton  districts  as  striking  as  exists  between 
these  and  the  North.  They  control  the  Secession  movement 
in  Virginia,  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee,  and  would  con 
trol  it  in  Georgia  and  Alabama  could  they  have  been  permit- 
ted to  vote  upon  it,  as  were  those  of  Tennessee  and  North 
Carolina.  They  will  no  more  submit  to  the  dictation  of  the 
Montgomery  oligarchs  than  New  York  or  Pennsylvania. 
Their  interests  are  more  directly  opposed  than  those  between 
the  Cotton  States  and  the  extreme  North,  because  the  wide 
distance  that  separates  the  latter  renders  them  independent 
of  each  other,  while  the  Cotton  States  are  seeking,  by  every 
possible  means,  to  drag  all  the  Slave  States  with  them,  for 
the  purpose  of  compelling  them  to  share  their  burdens,  and 
of  giving  greater  strength  and  dignity  to  their  cause. 

This  great  tongue  or  wedge  of  land  carries  Northern  ideas, 


70  THE  GEOGRAPHICAL  QUESTION  OF  SECESSION. 

Northern  industry,  and  Northern  population  right  into  the 
heart  of  Cottondom,  and  within  two  hundred  miles  of  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico.  It  is  now,  and  must  continue  to  be,  the 
stratagetical  line  controlling  the  whole  question  of  Secession. 
It  now  holds  the  Border  States.  Should  Eastern  Virginia 
go,  Western  Virginia  would  not.  If  Western  Tennessee 
should,  the  Eastern  portion  of  the  State  would  not.  They 
are  very  well  satisfied  with  things  as  they  are.  They  do  not 
propose  to  cultivate  cotton  fields;  but  to  grow  grain,  raise 
stock  and  work  minerals,  and  in  time  to  become  a  great  manu- 
facturing people.  They  are  not  going  to  submit  to  enormous 
taxes  for  the  benefit  of  slave  propogandism.  They  tolerate 
slavery,  but  want  no  more,  and  soon  hope  to  get  rid  of  the 
the  few  slaves  they  have. 

The  accompanying  map  illustrates,  in  a  striking  manner, 
the  relation  of  this  territory  to  the  question  of  Secession. 
The  figures  upon  it  show  the  ratio  of  the  slave  to  the  white 
population,  which  is  also  shown  by  the  different  degrees  of 
shade.  The  territory  upon  which  the  slave  does  not  exceed 
one-tenth  of  the  population  is  left  white.  Where  the  popula- 
tion is  so  small  its  protection  and  development  can  never 
guide  the  legislation  of  a  State.  Where  such  territory  is  con- 
tiguous, so  that  its  inhabitants  can  sustain  and  support  each 
other,  they  are  not  be  overawed  or  driven  in  any  direction 
adverse  to  their  interest. 

Here,  then,  is  a  standing  menace  to  Southern  Confederacy, 
within  sight  of  their  own  capitol,  and  quite  competent  to  break 
the  back  of  Secession  without  any  aid  from  the  North.  But 
suppose  the  General  Government  were  disposed  to  aid  it,  and 
should  do  so  by  offering  to  purchase  every  slave  within  this 
75,000  square  miles  of  territory  ?  For  this,  $50,000,000 
would  be  ample.  It  would  be  the  best  investment  ever  made 
by  a  nation.  At  present  these  100,000  slaves  block  the  way 
to  millions  of  freemen.  Nearly  every  one  of  them  are  un- 
profitable ;  yet  they  are  so  interwoven  with  the  white  popula- 
tion, as  heir-looms  and  family  servants,  that  they  only  slowly 
disappear.     Plant  a  million  of  mechanics  and  artisans  in  their 


THE  GEOGRAPHICAL  QUESTION  OF  SECESSION.  71 

places,  and  the  profits  of  their  industry  would  be  greater  than 
that  of  all  the  slaves  in  the  United  States.  The  Cotton 
States  are  even  more  interested  than  the  Northern  in  making 
this  territory  free,  as  a  means  of  obtaining  abundance  of  food, 
manufactures  of  iron,  agricultural  and  domestic  implements 
of  all  kinds,  at  the  cheapest  rates,  and  almost  at  their  doors, 
and  of  enlarging,  at  the  same  time,  the  market  for  their  great 
staples. 

The  map  also  illustrates  the  impossibility  of  dividing  the 
country  upon  any  political  boundary.     These  are  accidental, 
and  produce  no  corresponding  change  in  the  habits  and  char- 
acter of  the  inhabitants  living   upon   them.     If  the  Cotton 
States  would  obtain   peace,  after  their  fashion,  they  must 
have   uniformity,  by  excluding  all   elements   of  disturbance, 
and  all   territory  better  adapted   to  free  labor  than  to  slave. 
But  this  would  leave  their  own  so   reduced   in  area,  and  so 
cut  to  pieces  by  hostile  and  stratagetical  lines  as  to  be  entirely 
inadequate  for   the  foundation  of  a  new  Nationality,  which 
must  immediately  come  in  conflict  with  a  first  class  power, 
or  maintain  such  an  attitude  as  will  involve  the  expenditures 
of  a  first  class  power.     It  would  leave  a  majority  of*  the  Cot- 
ton States  shorn  of  one  half  of  their  domains.     The  disaffect- 
ed portions  should  be  got  rid  of  as  soon  as  possible.     With 
these  would  be  lost  all  that  portion  of  the  population  which, 
from  its  climate   and   pursuits,  contained  any  real   strength. 
The  new  Confederacy,  reduced  to  the  area  of  the  planting 
districts,  would  have  plenty  to  attend  to  without  the  pastime 
of   forming   new  Empires.      With   one-half  of  its   numbers 
slaves  ;  with  a  discontented   population  of  whites,  who  do 
not  in  the  Cotton  districts,  as  elsewhere,  from  their  industry 
and  intelligence,  constitute  the  real  strength  of  the  nation  ;  and 
without   the   means  of   realizing  a   single   one   of  its  aims, 
it  will  not  be   long  before  every  member  of  it  will  heartily 
wish  himself   back  in  the   bosom  of  the   Old  Confederacy, 
which  gave  both  dignity  and  protction  at  the  lowest  possible 
cost,  and  which  allowed  every  reasonable  scope  to  individual 
action,  tolerated  every  kind  of  opinion,  and  made  obedience  to 


72  THE  GEOGRAPHICAL  QUESTON  OF  SECESSION 

law,  within  its  limited  sphere,  the  only  test  of  nationality.  To 
the  bosom  of  this  Confederacy  all  must  in  time  return,  no 
matter  how  eccentric  may  be  the  present  action  of  the  refac- 
tory  members.  They  have  embarked  in  a  contest  in  which 
natural  laws,  and  the  public  and  private  welfare  are  against 
them.  Such  a  contest  cannot  be  long  sustained.  The  exces- 
sive burdens  which  the  people  of  the  new  Confederacy  will 
soon  be  called  on  to  bear,  will  be  contiasted  with  the  mille- 
nium  of  protection,  quiet  and  prosperity  enjoyed  under  the 
Federal  Government,  and  which  can  never  be  regained  but 
under  the  banner  which  has  signalized  our  triumphs,  and  is 
the  symbol  of  our  unity. 


A     000  106  430     2 


